Where the Rainforest Meets the Ocean

After having made the decision to come to Australia, the thing at the top of my list to see was the Great Barrier Reef. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best place to do this from, and before arriving, had thought it would be out of a place called Townsville. However, once arriving and talking to Julie and Warren, that was immediately nixed. Apparently Townsville is a pretty sketchy town, and though it is a good place to see the reef, the rest of the experience there was just not going to be great. So, Warren highly recommended going out of a place called Port Douglas instead. Turns out, the area around Port Douglas also includes the Daintree Rainforest, making it the only place in the world where to World Heritage Sites meet! Without much further thought, we booked a flight into Cairns, rented a car and headed up north.

Port Douglas

We landed in Cairns and immediately drove up to Port Douglas. This was the first time I have driven a car since October and it was so nice to have that freedom again! They drive on the opposite side of the road and the car in Australia so that was a bit of a learning curve, but I’d say I mastered it (with the exception of the time when I tried to do a u-turn and got the car stuck on the side of the road…).

Port Douglas is a super cute town that is home to about 3500 people. It started as a gold mining town in the late 1800s, but has since turned to a tourist destination because of its convenience to the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest.

The Daintree Rainforest – Dubuji Hike

The rainforest and Cape Tribulation were about a two hour drive north of Port Douglas.

Cape Tribulation – This area was named by Captain Cook after his ship was severely damaged when it struck some coral in the Great Barrier Reef. According to his records, this is the area where ‘all his troubles began’. For us now, however, it is a beautiful tropical paradise.

Daintree Rainforest – Jindalba Trail

Mossman Gorge – Just a short drive from Port Douglas is the Mossman Gorge, which is part of the southern portion of the Daintree.

There is a short hike at the northern point of Port Douglas where you can see this amazing view.

Diving the Reef! – Unfortunately, even though I have considered it many times, I still have not purchased a GoPro, so I have no photos of the reef itself or any of the amazing sea life we saw. However, in my memory lives vivid images of massive corals and reefs like I have never seen before! There are also memories of two sting rays, several giant clams, and three sea turtles, not to mention the countless schools of Nemos and Dories and all the other fascinating fish. When I used to teach 7th grade Geography, we’d cover Australia and the need to save the reef, and though it is still threatened, a lot has been done to rejuvenate the reef. The dive master, Jorg, claimed that over the 17 years he has been diving here, he has seen great improvement which makes me happy to know.

Cairns and Kuranda

From Port Douglas we headed back down to Cairns which is a medium sized city that felt like a small town. Many people choose to dive the reef from here, but since we’d already done that, we just found more hiking to do and also spent a day visiting a cute little nearby hippie town called Kuranda.

Kuranda is home to a place called the Koala Gardens. It probably wasn’t worth the $20 admission, but I was able to feed kangaroos again so that made me happy.

Barron Falls was a nice little drive about 30 minutes away from Cairns.

Cairns itself has a really cool esplanade where they have this giant pool that is open to the public to swim in FOR FREE! It was packed when we were strolling by there. The piece of art in the bottom right picture is called the Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and has a mirrored exterior to represent the idea that we ‘take only memories’.

From here, we head back to the Sunshine Coast for a bit and then will embark on the next journey down to the island of Tasmania!