July 31, 2007 

Drove from Granite Gorge to Port Douglas, stopping along the way to visit another waterfall (supposedly spectacular in the Wet and definitely less than that in the Dry) with a stop in Cairns to pick up our vehicle insurance refund check at the company office.  The check was ready for us as promised, but when we went to the bank to cash it, the bank that the check was written on, they refused to cash it for us without opening an account, and waiting three days.  We felt that this was unacceptable as we had already been inconvenienced by the insurance company in the first place, so we went back to the office and raised a bit of a fuss about our inability to access our refund.  Finally, someone with some power authorized a cash refund, which was what we tried to get a month ago in Brisbane.  Sheesh, what a hassle. 

Finally leaving Cairns at about 3:30pm, we headed north towards Port Douglas.  The drive along the western coast was absolutely gorgeous with lots of beaches to play on, but none to camp on.  So since it was late in the day, we just continued past them all, oohing and aahing until we reached “Port” as the locals call it.  After checking with the two campgrounds right in town (which were full) we ended up back on the highway at the Glengarry Big 4 campground with a bazillion other people.  But the owners (all members of an extended family) were very nice and accommodating, finding spots for campers all over their huge property, which used to be a sugar cane plantation. They also had free wireless, which is the first we have found in Australia. 

August 1, 2007 

So since we had wireless, we spent the morning doing computer work and researching Great Barrier Reef dive trips, and the afternoon running around Port Douglas on our bicycles trying to decide on a dive company.  The Great Barrier Reef is one of the natural wonders of the world.  It consists of over 2,600 separate reefs, is 2,000kms long and 80kms wide (at its widest) and is estimated to be over 600,000 years old.  Something we definitely wanted to see. 

When we were done, we decided to skip the campground for the night and drove to Mossman Gorge and spent the night in the parking lot.   

August 2, 2007 

In the morning we drove to Cooya Beach for breakfast and then decided that we needed to make a decision and make reservations with a dive company.  We drove back into Port, made our reservations and spent the afternoon parked in a gorgeous town park with the ocean on three sides, while it rained off and on.  Not exactly what we were hoping for, but you can’t dictate the weather.  Late in the afternoon we headed back to Glengarry to get ready for our dive trip. 

August 3, 2007

At 8:00am we were picked up by Calypso, the company we chose to dive with, and driven to the dock to meet our boat.  After filling out all the obligatory paperwork, we spent the 1-1/2 hour boat ride looking for whales and anticipating the diving.  The ship stops at three sites, so we would have our choice of when to dive and when to snorkel.  On the way out we did see a humpback whale mother with her calf, slowly swimming along.   

Arriving at our first dive site, the number of people on the boat became apparent as we all tried to get ready to hit the water at the same time.  Fortunately the certified divers did get into the water first, but it was pretty crowded along the way.  Our first dive was rather disappointing in that during the first half, while we saw a lot of fish, we also saw an awful lot of broken, dead coral, lying on the sea bed.  We don’t know what happened in that area, but considering the second half of the dive was much better, in healthy coral reef, we wondered if the Divemaster initially took us in the wrong direction.  The water was also colder than we were prepared for, so we were pretty chilled when we got back on the boat. 

Deciding to snorkel the second site, we saw a lot of beautiful, colorful fish swimming in and around beautiful, colorful coral.  After a varied, tasty and filling lunch, we suited up for our second dive.  This dive was much nicer for a number of reasons.  First, there were only three of us plus the divemaster, so that was a real improvement on the first dive.  Second, the location was beautiful.  A large mound of coral that we were able to swim around, perfectly timed to return to the boat in just the right amount of time.  Third, the fish and the coral were beautiful.  Tons of both and extremely varied and colorful.   

During the boat ride back to shore, the captain kept locating pods of dolphins and more humpback whales.  It was amazing.  We saw at least 8 whales, some very close to our boat.  We ended up being one of the last boats to return to shore. 

August 4, 2007 

The estuarine or saltwater crocodile are an important part of the wetlands ecology.  They are the largest predator here and help maintain the overall health of the ecosystem.  They live mainly in tidal areas of rivers, but also in fresh water section of lagoons, swamps and even in waterways hundreds of kilometers from the sea.  Even swimming at some ocean beaches is dangerous.

As we approached the Daintree River, we stopped to pay for the ferry to take us across.  When we asked for the price, we were told $18.00.  Thinking that this was a bit steep for a 5 minute crossing, we asked what the price was based on.  Turned out the price we were quoted was for a round trip, but we only wanted to go one way.  I guess so few people purchase a one way ticket that the ticket seller just assumes everyone wants a round trip.  We're glad we questioned the price!  The ferry crossing was interesting in that the method used to move the ferry is a cable that runs over pulleys on the ferry, propelling it along.  This is the the beginning of our next 4wd journey along the Bloomfield Track, a controversial road built in the 1980s through the rainforest.  After a short drive on the track, we did our first water crossing of the trip across a pebbly bottomed creek and made camp just above it.  Thinking it would be a pretty quiet spot once it got dark, we were surprised by all the other cars we heard throughout the night.  The most surprising ones were the drunks that came by at 3am laughing and yelling and who returned at 5am and got stuck in the crossing.  After much yelling and splashing and pushing they finally extricated their car from the creek.

August 5, 2007 

Our first day on the track consisted of 4wd uphills and downhills and crossing so many creeks that we lost count.  Some of the hill grades probably exceeded 12 degrees in steepness.  We also had to navigate around several tree falls, including one that we had to drive over.  It was amazing that we saw very few other vehicles, except when we had to navigate through a difficult stretch and then there were vehicles lined up trying to do the same!   

We stopped for a break at a creek running parallel to the road and kept an eye out for crocs.  A couple of hours later we stopped for lunch and decided that the creek-side locale was so nice, why continue on to try to find something else?  We spent the rest of the afternoon reading up on our upcoming Cape York adventure.