Mossman Gorge

Today, Saturday 30 August we went to a local Saturday morning market here in Mossman - purchased some vegies and homemade fruit cake!  We then went to Mossman Gorge,  it is part of the Daintree Forest conservation area.  The vegetation was just unbelievable.
Note the fern growing up on the trunk in the canopy.

Suspension bridge built by the army in the 1986, all the materials were carried in so as to not damage the environment.  Even 20kg bags of cement.  What a workout for these guys.

Note the ferns growing on the boulders in the river.

Black fungus.

 

Very old Fig Tree

 

Swim hole at the river.  The water was crystal clear,  sandy bottom and those swimming said the water was pleasant.

People you meet
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At Cooktown we met Andrew Sterry.  Just look up on Youtube "Nissan Patrol Gunshot" 

We have seen this video on numerous occasions and everyone talks about it.  It's incredible that he actually survived.

Andrew is wearing the same hat when he tackled Gunshot and pointing to the body damage on the car,  the steering wheel was damaged as was the snorkel.

Apparently he has driven the OTT about 4 times and he was going up again this year.  Some people just never learn.

Mossman

On 29 August we packed up and drove the Bloomfield track to Mossman (about 15 minutes from Port Douglas).  This is a four wheel drive track,  it was extremely steep, narrow, corrugated, winding with river crossings.   The Creb Track was closed (it's much worse than what we went on)

This photo was taken through the front window of the car,  note the large pipes that are put under bridges to help with water flow.  This bridge was being constructed and hence we had to cross through the water. 

 

 

We stopped for morning tea at Helenvale,  The Lions Den Hotel has been in existence since the late 1800s it was run by a young widow who had 2 children.  It remained within the same family for 7 generations.

the flowers are called Jade vines,  they are so beautiful.  They attract little yellow birds, see below.

Outside area of Lions Den, Neil on far right.

Wenlock River and bridge

Some of the roads we travelled on.

Good signs!

Note the decent of this road.

Note how narrow the road is.

We are travelling through the Daintree Forest,  where the forest meets the sea.

Note the narrowness,  on occasions we had to reverse for on coming traffic.

 

The beach is just below.

River crossing and on coming cars going through

We are now crossing.

We stopped and had lunch here,  people were swimming here even though there were signs everywhere about crocs!

Monitor lizard looking for food.

Beautiful beach, with plenty of mangroves for crocs to hide.

Note some of the "vines" in the forest.

On the ferry crossing the Daintree River.

 

We arrived at Mossman about 4.30 and setup camp.

 

 

 

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