I leave Dougie's and Port Douglas behind as there is not too much to do here and take a drive up to Cape Tribulation. Along the way I get stopped at a rail road crossing by a narrow gauge train pulling a huge load of about 30 trailers containing sugar cane which is growing in almost every field along the roadside here. I am sure that I will see many of these along my travels down to Brisbane.

My next stop is to buy a return ticket for a cable pulled ferry across the Daintree River over to Cape Tribulation. The drive up from the ferry crossing to Cape Tribulation was around 35km of narrow roads hugging the coastline most of the way passing through a tropical jungle. The name Cape Tribulation was given to the area by Captain Cook after his ship ran aground on an outlaying reef.

Which leads nicely on to today’s history lesson.....

Cape Tribulation is a headland and locality in northern Queensland, Australia 110 km (68 mi) north of Cairns. It is located within the Daintree National Park and the Wet Tropics World Heritage area. The locality contains a small number of tourism resorts and backpacker hostels. A sealed road provides access to the area from the south via the Daintree River Ferry. North from Cape Tribulation Beach House, a four-wheel drive unsealed road, known as the Bloomfield Track, continues to the Bloomfield River, Wujal Wujal, Bloomfield Falls and Cooktown and is often closed during the wet season (February to April).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Tribulation,_Queensland

When I arrived at Cape Tribulation I headed for Mason’s Store which also doubled up as a cafe and tour operator to check out the different things that I could do while I was up here for a couple of days, but as soon as I saw their prices for the 4x4 tour and the walking tours, I decided that it would be best for me to arrange my own walking tour.

Out came the map and I decided for today that I would head off towards the beach along a short 1.8km boardwalk through mangroves and rainforest and then on to Cape Tribulation Beach. While on the beach I decided to give my underwater camera a trial run. Sorry about the hairy legs but there were no fish close by to take pictures off.

I walked back along the same boardwalk and headed back to the van and down to my campsite for the evening (Cape Tribulation Campsite, $18 per night). I tried to book their afternoon kayaking trip but they needed a minimum of 3 people before they run it, I was the first person of the day so I put my name down on the list with little hope of actually getting to go kayaking.

I didn’t get to go kayaking as there were no other people how wanted to go, so I just took a walk along Myall Beach, where the campsite was before heading back to the van for dinner.