A Swim at Mossman Gorge

After a rotten night's sleep due to my cold, I took Ally to the optician at 9 a.m. I made him an appointment yesterday because I found out that he only has one pair of contact lenses with him and so if he loses one he has no back up. Ally was not best pleased about this early start. Breakfast when we got back then we set off for Mossman Gorge which is about 20 km north of Port Douglas, west of the little town of Mossman. Mossman Gorge is a valley with a river full of boulders, surrounded by rainforest, in the south east corner of Daintree National Park. We went on a 2 km walk through the rainforest, on an easy path. There were lots of vines growing round the trees and hanging down. Some of the trees had huge wedge shaped roots above the ground called buttresses. There were interpretive boards which explained the plant species and some of the cultural meanings of the area for the indigenous tribe Kuku Yalanji. Then we went to the swimming hole in the river. It was great! The water was very cool compared to the sea yesterday but it was great fun swimming about. We swam up to the waterfall by the rocks then pushed ourselves out and the current swept us back down the river! The boys and James were climbing up and jumping off rocks. There were jungle perch swimming around our legs, a bush turkey running about and beautiful blue butterflies flying about. When we got back to the car park we noticed that a lot of the number plates have the slogan "Queensland - the sunshine state". There were also cars from other parts of Australia; James noticed that Victoria has the slogan "Victoria - the place to be". Every time he saw one he said in surprised tones, "Then why are you here?" which I thought was very funny!
We had a very late lunch in the Raintrees Cafe in Mossman, then drove a few kilometres north to Newell Beach for a walk. Newell beach is a long, beautiful beach, narrower and quieter than Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas. Jamie, Ally and Davie spent ages throwing things to try to get coconuts down from the trees, they finally got a couple of fresh ones, but had no way to open them. However a friendly young Australian couple lent us a machete and James and Jamie laid about the coconuts until they were open and we all had a drink of fresh coconut milk; it was delicious. Good day; I'm exhausted but the good news is I think my cold is getting better.