Palm Cove (WK 24)

Even though the weather has not been kind to us, Palm Cove is an amazing place to have some downtime. Although I think Paul would dispute the term ‘downtime’ as he’s been on both a fishing and a diving trip. We are both really enjoying being back in the tropics and being on the coast.

We arrived in Palm Cove on 01/09/2021 after a short but very exciting trip down from the Atherton Tablelands to the coast. Lots of hairpin bends whilst going downhill on narrow roads. The caravan park is right on the beach but luckily our site was at the back so protected from the gale blowing!

The first few days were taken up with walks long the beach and checking out the local watering holes (of which there are many….).

On 04/09/2021 Paul drove up to Port Douglas for a half day fishing tour on the reef. Unfortunately the wind was still blowing so the tour was along the estuary. Paul caught a huge cod within minutes so was very happy (he doesn’t usually have much success…). This was followed by 2 mangrove jacks and a crab, made all the more impressive by the fact that no one else on the trip had much success. The only downside was that the trip was a ‘catch and release’, so no fish for dinner.

On 05/09/2021 Paul drove back up to Port Douglas for a full day 3 dive trip on the reef. Good sized boat only half full with great dive facilities called SilverSwift. Best diving on the Great Barrier Reef he’s ever had, out on the ribbon reef called Agincourt about 90 minutes from the port. He saw the largest turtle he’s ever seen and a huge Maori wrasse but the best thing was the coral. Absolutely amazing colours set against the bright white sand.

On the morning of 06/08/2021 we hired Merida electric bikes and cycled from Palm Cove to Trinity Beach (approx 23 km) via Clifton and Kewarra Beach. The cycle path is mostly along the coastline except for a short part but all is on a cycle path. Paul reached 40kph whilst I was a sedate 26kph. We had a walk and brunch at Trinity Beach before returning along the cycle path back to Palm Cove.

On 07/09/2021 we drove south to the Crystal Cascades (part of the Lamb Range) which has a short walk up to the water falls. There were many opportunities for a dip in one of the waterholes but at 24c it’s a tad cold for us 😎. On the way back we visited Lower Barron Gorge (below the Kuranda and the Barron Falls) which has a hydro electric power station supplying 36,000 homes with power. Pretty impressive as was the drive along the Barron River. Water was flowing down Surprise Creek Falls too (because it’s been raining so much 🤣).

On 08/09/2021 we drove up to Port Douglas to have a look around. The road to Port Douglas is very exciting hugging the coastline; lots of ups / downs and hairpin bends. Port Douglas is a much larger resort than Palm Cove along Four Mile Beach which unfortunately was not looking its best from a very windy lookout.

On 10/09/2021 we are leaving the caravan at Palm Cove to travel up to Cooktown on the Bloomfield track staying for 2 nights in Cooktown. The weather outlook is much much better….