The
road from Cairns to Cape Tribulation is a beautiful road.
It goes through the so-called Wet
Tropics - an area totally different from the real Cape
York peninsula.
As opposed to the peninsula's stringybark forests, this road goes
through some beautiful greenery.
If it's not tropical rainforests it's tea, coffee, banana or sugar cane
fields, or it is the beautiful coast between Cairns and Port Douglas.
The only
downside is that greenery also means rain, and often this area
is not quite as sunny as many other places in Cape York.
The road is sealed all
the way from Cairns
to Cape
Tribulation and it doesn't require a 4WD.
Cairns
Northern Beaches
After
leaving Cairns you first pass by the turnoff to each one of Cairns
Northern Beaches.
Some, like
Machans
and Kewarra are
quieter local
communities, while
others, such as Palm
Cove, Yorkeys Knob
and Trinity Beach
are more
popular with tourists and more commercial.
Port
Douglas
After the Northern Beaches you come to a beautiful
stretch of road that follows the coast and has some great views over
the ocean, before you come to Port
Douglas.
It
is a beautiful, colourful and touristy town with nice
shops,
restaurants, accommodation
and Low
Isles.
Mossman
After
Port Douglas the Cairns to Cape Tribulation road turns a bit inland and
goes to Mossman through
some sugar cane country.
Mossman used
to be a quiet country
town but has in recent years started to get fancy shops and art
galleries. Just outside the town is the beautiful Mossman
Gorge.
Wonga
Beach Area
North
of Mossman, the road passes by some rocky headlands with nice views
over the ocean, a bit similar to what you saw on the
road from Cairns
to
Port Douglas. Further north there are the small
beach
communities Newell Beach
and Wonga Beach, and the small animal park Daintree Zoo. In between
Newell and Wonga are Miallo
and Whyanbeel Valley.
The
Daintree
Area
After
Wonga Beach the road continues north to an intersection where you can
turn left towards Daintree Village - a cute rainforest
village, some
croc watching tours and CREB
Track.
Or you can
turn right towards Cape
Tribulation, which takes you to the Daintree River Ferry
crossing.
Cape
Tribulation Area
North of Daintree River the road continues through Daintree
National Park past
Cape Kimberley, Cow Bay,
Thornton Beach, Noah Beach and Myall Beach to Cape
Tribulation just south of the start of Bloomfield
Road
-
the coastal road north to Cooktown.
Newell
Beach
Newell
Beach is just north of Mossman.
It is a beautiful beach with vies over the headland that is Port
Douglas.
It is a quiet residental area, with a takeaway shop and a caravan park.
Miallo and
Whyanbeel Valley
North of Newell Beach
is the small township of Miallo,
... one of the least remote cattle stations - Daintree Station,
... and Whyanbeel Valley -
one of the nothernmost sugar cane areas.
During
the cane cutting season, you can join cane farm tours to
learn how it all works.
Wonga
Beach
Further
north along the road from Cairns to Cape Tribulation is Wonga Beach, a
beautiful long beach great for walks at low tide.
There are two different caravan parks, one has resident peacocks.
Daintree
Zoo
There is
also a small family owned zoo park - Daintree Zoo.
They
have cockatoos, parrots and finches, emus, cassowaries, wedge tailed
eagle, dingos and saltwater and freshwater crocodiles.
Other
reptiles include
slatey grey snake, spotted python, amethystine python, carpet python,
lace monitor, brown tree snake, knob-tailed gecko, eastern water
skink, eastern blue-tongue skink, krefts turtle, saw-shelled turtle,
bearded dragon, eastern water dragon, and frill necked lizard.
Get
this 50 pages
guide totally for FREE.
It
contains information that helps you getting started with planning of your trip.
You get to make early-stages desicions such as when to go, how long time you
should take, how to get
there and get
around, where
to stay (general info), what
will it cost..
and a short insight to what is there to see and do in Cape York.
This complete 300 pages
travel guide is all you need before and during your trip. Besides the
background chapters on the peninsula's history and wildlife; and the comprehensive detail about all
the places (down to prices, opening hours and full contact
detail), it has invaluable information on at least 10 four wheel drive tracks,
at least 30 guaranteed FREE
camping spots on the Cape (and at least 150 on your way to
the Cape), at least 40 best
swimming holes, all mapped; as well as practical things -
from fuel, roads, wireless internet and mobile phone reception,
how to deal with the national
parks booking rules; and Aboriginal land entrance and camping permits
and alcohol restrictions - to vehicle preparation and accessories and necessary recovery
gear by my vehicle-recovery-guy partner).
Not to mention locals'
tips on how to spot that croc and palm cockatoo ;-)
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This site uses British
English, which is the English we use in
Australia.
Disclaimer:
Although
best efforts have been made to ensure that all the information on this
website is correct, this site is not to be blamed should there be a
mistake.
This is the ORIGINAL Cape York Travel Guide run Locally on the Peninsula.