Cape Tribulation & Port Douglas
The final leg of my trip with Alissa was a bittersweet one. One the one hand, we had a real adventure exploring the aboriginal art galleries of Port Douglas and the Cape Tribulation area of the Daintree Tropical Rainforest (like the Great Barrier Reef, a World Heritage site). But on the other hand, at the start of our final leg we parted ways with Pat, whom I likely won’t see until August, and at the end I saw Alissa for the last time until June.
On the way north from Cairns to Cape Trib we stopped in Port Douglas, one of the most popular domestic Australian tourist destinations during the winter, in order to enjoy one of the few periods of sunny weather since the rainstorm on Nari’s Beach. Although I knew it was one of the more popular tourist destinations in Queensland, I was still hoping to find a quaint little shopping district, perhaps something along the lines of Boca Grande.
The reality was a bit more glitzy and corporate: the drive from Captain Cook Highway to the historic downtown district was basically a long stretch of corporate resorts and strip malls, while downtown was more charming, but still basically filled with a mixture of chintzy tourist traps and chains like Coles and Coffee Club. That said, there were certainly some gems along the main drag, as long as you searched them out, and we had a perfectly wonderful afternoon there. We spent by far the most time in a pair of aboriginal art galleries (both of which were run by Israelis, oddly enough), where we both picked up some cool, surprisingly reasonably priced pieces. If you’re interested in getting some aboriginal art in Australia, be sure to go to Port Douglas.
The rest of the drive up to Cape Trib was eventful, even if we didn’t stop anywhere else along the way. We had to take the cable ferry (an approximately 30m ferry that is pulled across the Daintree River on a pair of giant steel cables, not unlike the ones used for ski lifts), but missed the turnoff for it and continued to the end of Captain Cook highway, about 20 minutes past the ferry. After crossing the river, we had another 40 km to go, the first 10 of which were steep, narrow and winding. After that, the road was generally flatter and in good repair, but—bewilderingly—at several major stream crossings, they have elected to build a spillway across the road, rather than a bridge over the stream, the practical consequence of which is that we had to drive our massively inadequate rental Corolla through about .2m of fast moving water. \It’s safe to say I was happy we had taken out the extra damage waiver on the car.
We were staying at the Cape Trib Beach House, which was a budget resort 2 km past the town of Cape Tribulation, slightly beyond the point at which the paved road ends. We had a bit of a scare just before arriving at the Beach House, when we realized that there was a steep, unpaved hill just before getting to the driveway, which appeared to be more or less a huge mudslide because of all they rain they had been having; fortunately, it turned out not to be a problem, although it wouldn’t turn out to be the last, or least of our road-related worries; the next time I return to Cape Trib, I’m renting a 4WD vehicle, preferably with a snorkel.
The Beach House itself was great, especially for budget accommodations. We had splurged and spent a total of $89 per night in order to have a private room with a shared bath, but when we arrived they upgraded us to a room with a private ensuite bathroom. There was a restaurant and bar next to the pool, down near the beach; the food was nothing to write home about, but we did get a free breakfast of bacon and eggs or fruit and cereal (you can probably guess which we opted for), which was extra tasty because it was free.
The weather alternated between light and heavy rain most of our time in Cape Trib, although the skies were clear when we first arrived. We took advantage of the nice weather with a walk on the beach at nearly low tide. It’s really a travesty that neither of us brought our camera to the beach, because it was fantastically beautiful in the low, late afternoon light. A small sheen of water covered much of the beach, just enough to cast beautiful reflections of the sky and jungle—which came right to the water’s edge at high tide—while remaining shallow enough to keep the tops of my flip-flops dry. We traversed a small stream—perhaps formed only by the receding tide, though I suspect rainwater was a motre likely source—again shallow enough for my sndals in all but a few avoidable spots, and walked all the way out to the furthest spit of dry sand, to watch a nearby fishing boat silently go about its business as we speculated about exactly what they might be catching.
The highlight of our time in Cape Trib was the exotic fruit tasting at the Cape Trib Exotic Fruit Farm. Although they grow over 150 types of fruit at any given moment, our tasting was of just 10 varieties, all quite exotic, which ranged from delicious (mangos teen, dragon fruit, fried breadfruit chips) to not so great (weird yeasty fruit). The woman conducting the tasting gave us some pretty detailed information on each of the fruits as she prepared/served it; the whole tasting took about an hour. After we finished the tasting, we took a walk through their orchards and saw the trees where most of the fruits we had just eaten were grown, as well as some plants whose fruit we hadn’t tried. The grounds were extremely lush and beautiful, even if it was wet and muddy.
We had lunch before the tasting, and dinner that night, at Whet Restaurant, which I would certainly recommend if you’re in Cape Tribulation. Lunch was a better value, and the snapper we ordered for dinner was so fish and bad that I couldn’t eat more than a bite, but overall the food was good, as was the service, and the space itself was amazing. The entire dining area was outside, but under a permanently installed tent covering a deck connected to the restaurant, so you’re basically eating in the jungle. The restaurant itself had a great funky modern design, with lots of comfy leather furniture around coffee tables and a long bar you could eat at if you so desired. Each night they screen a movie in the restaurant on a big projector, with people seated on the comfy leather furniture; sadly, though, we missed it because Wednesday night was yoga night, the one day they don’t do a movie.
Dinner was kind of ruined, not only by the fishy Snapper, but also by the fact that I was freaking out the whole time over the fact that we might not make it the next morning back to Cairns and my flight to Lizard Island. We discovered that afternoon that the large creek we had crossed through on the way in was subject to tidal flooding, as well as more rainfall. With strong overnight rains, as well as a rising tide, the stream crossing could easily surge over 1 meter—only a few days before it had flooded over 2 meters—and our carolla was only fit to do .2-.3 meters of water at the very most. I got so worried that I made us pack up that night and leave Cape Trib a night early, even though we had paid for the night already. Fortunately, Alissa was totally understanding, and we made it out that night fairly uneventfully. We ended up spending the night back in Port Douglas, at a fantastic hostel that was so empty we got an entire 10-bunk dorm to ourselves; the whole place was practically brand new and everything was cleaner and nicer than most hostels I’ve ever stayed in; not bad for $27AUD per night.
Because we had done most of the drive that night, the next morning was relaxed; we had plenty of time to get back, get Alissa checked back in at Globetrotters, have another great breakfast at the Jamdrop Café, and take care of some last minute food shopping before returning the car and getting to my 2:00pm flight.
