After our first night in the camper van, at the Tropic Breeze Caravan Park, we kicked off the day with a visit to the Mossman Gorge Centre, located at the southern end of Daintree National Park. A Mossman Gorge Walk is a must if you are in Cairns.
The drive from Port Douglas was quick, easy and well worth it. We encountered a ‘dad’ cassowary - males are smaller compared to the females - with its two baby chicks crossing the road. Only the male takes care of the chicks until they turn 16 months. The giant flightless birds were hard to observe with only 4 thousand remaining in Australia. So we were lucky to see 3 of them hoping to see more during our Mossman Gorge Walk.
As we arrived at the Indigenous ecotourism centre, we parked the vehicle and started with a visit to the Indigenous Art gallery. The gallery promoted arts and crafts from the local Kuku Yalanji artists. Shuttle buses departed from the visitor's centre every 15 minutes but we elected to walk the 2 kilometres down to the Mossman Gorge Walk and saved $9.50 each.
We passed the aboriginal community, arrived at the entrance, and followed the signs through the rainforest. We strolled at a leisurely pace for almost 2 hours admiring the lush vegetation and occasional wildlife including one Boyd’s forest dragon. The creature with it yellow dewlap under its chin was hard to spot as it stayed very still even when we were up close.
The weather was cloudy, hot and humid. The extreme weather in Cairns in the last few days had swollen the rivers. Swimming was therefore not recommended as strong undercurrents in swimming holes made them extremely dangerous. Other visitors of the Mossman Gorge Walk seemed to ignore the warnings.
After the hike, we jumped back into the camper and kept venturing north into the Daintree forest. After crossing the iconic Daintree cable car ferry, we continued our journey to Cape Tribulation. It was definitely not high season. We found ourselves alone in deserted campsite lost in the middle of nowhere. No network connection. No neighbours to chit-chat with. Just a number of flying foxes at dust streaming into the night sky in search of a feed.