Port Douglas, Cooktown and Reef visits (5th September 2019)
Mustang Sally is back in at the Crystalbrook Marina at the moment but not for much longer.
Since the last post we have been many places and seen many things.
On our first stop in at PD we ended up in marina world for around 10days.
We hired a rental car so that we could do lots of exploring and had many visits to go kiting at 4 mile beach which is the local kiteboarding hang out. We even got to meet the very famous Bretto from Windswell who gave us some excellent intel for our kiting adventures as we head north which we are pretty excited about.
Some of the highlights of this stopover were:
Catching up with fellow Safety Beach SC members Gary and Barb Morland who come up to the nearby Wonga Beach for their winter sojourn.
Eating Fresh Prawns from the boat
A road trip up to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest
Walk to the Port Douglas Lookout
After our 10 day stopover and with some nice calm weather in the forecast we headed out to the nearby Low Isles for a night before heading north to Mackay Reef which is around 10nm from Cape Tribulation. There is a small sand cay and a couple of moorings which made for a great place to stop for a few nights. It is quite a busy place with the big SailAway catamaran visiting daily and the Ocean Safari Rib visiting both morning and afternoon so we were definitely not lonely. We even had some coral trout fishing boats with their dory's coming into anchor most evenings.
Apart from being a beautiful spot the snorkelling was great with some amazing giant clams, plenty of healthy & vibrant coral and lots of fishies. We even managed to get out for a fantastic kite boarding session which was very exciting as the water was so clear the coral appeared a lot closer than it really was. After our three nights at Mackay it was back to Low Isles for a few nights before the SE winds developed again.
Low Isles is a great place to hang out especially as it is a Green Zone so no fishing at all which means the fish are incredibly friendly. As soon as you are on a mooring you have many Bat Fish, Remora's, Black Tipped Reef Sharks and this time a Giant Trevally to keep you company. On one of our snorkels this stopover we even had a huge Manta Ray come and swim with us and well as many turtles!!!
We came back in Crystalbrook Marina on the 29th August - it is quickly becoming one of our favourite marina's.
We dropped into the fuel dock on the way in to make sure Sally is full on hydrocarbons before we take off for Lizard. We moved back into our berth again which is almost becoming our third home. Again we hired a car especially as we wanted to do a road trip up to Cooktown..
This time we caught up with some more Safety Beach SC folk being Ian and Gail Pearse who holiday in PD most winters - how far do you have to go!!
We headed off for our road trip to Cooktown on the 1st September. You dont travel that far and the scenery changes from Tropical Rainforest to dry Savannah and plenty of signs about hitting cattle on the road which was a bit disturbing. We stopped off at the Split Rock Aboriginal Rock Art site on the trip which was fascinating as some of the artwork is estimated to be around 13,000 years old.
We arrived at Cooktown and checked our the Endeavour River which has many boats anchored and moored including the cruising cat Cruising Eden who we have been crossing anchorages with all up the coast. They are heading to Darwin so they have many more miles to go.
We stopped at the Gecko Guesthouse which was fantastic and would recommend it highly if ever travelling up this way - Dianne and Andrew made us feel most welcome.
We did all the usual tourist things at Cooktown including a visit to the Museum which is in the old Nunnery, a visit to Grassy Hill Lookout and also did a trip down to the Bloomfield Water Falls which was very beautiful and can only imagine what they look like in the wet season. We ended up doing all of the very famous Bloomfield Track except for the 32NM which is for 4WD vehicles ONLY
We have been back in PD for a couple of days now getting ready for the trip up to Lizard Island. We are expecting to be away for around 4 weeks so the boat is absolutley chockers full of food and drinks and all the other necessities to make life comfy onboard. Luckily at Lizard Island we do have access to fresh water although it has to be jerried on board. Apparently they have also set up a rubbish service for $5 per bag and we can visit the Marlin Bar for drinks and eats three times a week which is much better than our last visit when the Marlin Bar had been blown away by Cyclone Ida. We are really looking forward to seeing how much it has changed since our last visit 5 years ago.
We are not expecting to arrive at Lizard until the 15th of maybe a bit later as have quite a few stops planned for the trip up. First stop will be Mackay Reef as we have some very calm weather forecast for the next few days so can't wait.
We are also expecting a visit from Leapy Lynda who is planning to meet us at Lizard Island for a week so will be great to have her on board.
Next blog may not be till we get back down south depending on how much internet service we have
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| Port Douglas Tour Boats |
On our first stop in at PD we ended up in marina world for around 10days.
We hired a rental car so that we could do lots of exploring and had many visits to go kiting at 4 mile beach which is the local kiteboarding hang out. We even got to meet the very famous Bretto from Windswell who gave us some excellent intel for our kiting adventures as we head north which we are pretty excited about.
Some of the highlights of this stopover were:
Catching up with fellow Safety Beach SC members Gary and Barb Morland who come up to the nearby Wonga Beach for their winter sojourn.
Eating Fresh Prawns from the boat
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| Daintree River Ferry |
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| View over Snapper Island |
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| 4-Mile Beach Port Douglas |
Walk to the Port Douglas Lookout
After our 10 day stopover and with some nice calm weather in the forecast we headed out to the nearby Low Isles for a night before heading north to Mackay Reef which is around 10nm from Cape Tribulation. There is a small sand cay and a couple of moorings which made for a great place to stop for a few nights. It is quite a busy place with the big SailAway catamaran visiting daily and the Ocean Safari Rib visiting both morning and afternoon so we were definitely not lonely. We even had some coral trout fishing boats with their dory's coming into anchor most evenings.
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| Mackay Reef |
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| Coral Trout Boat |
Apart from being a beautiful spot the snorkelling was great with some amazing giant clams, plenty of healthy & vibrant coral and lots of fishies. We even managed to get out for a fantastic kite boarding session which was very exciting as the water was so clear the coral appeared a lot closer than it really was. After our three nights at Mackay it was back to Low Isles for a few nights before the SE winds developed again.
 |
| Bertie the Batfish |
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| Church in PD - Popular Wedding spot |
We came back in Crystalbrook Marina on the 29th August - it is quickly becoming one of our favourite marina's.
We dropped into the fuel dock on the way in to make sure Sally is full on hydrocarbons before we take off for Lizard. We moved back into our berth again which is almost becoming our third home. Again we hired a car especially as we wanted to do a road trip up to Cooktown..
This time we caught up with some more Safety Beach SC folk being Ian and Gail Pearse who holiday in PD most winters - how far do you have to go!!
We headed off for our road trip to Cooktown on the 1st September. You dont travel that far and the scenery changes from Tropical Rainforest to dry Savannah and plenty of signs about hitting cattle on the road which was a bit disturbing. We stopped off at the Split Rock Aboriginal Rock Art site on the trip which was fascinating as some of the artwork is estimated to be around 13,000 years old.
 |
| Split Rock |
We arrived at Cooktown and checked our the Endeavour River which has many boats anchored and moored including the cruising cat Cruising Eden who we have been crossing anchorages with all up the coast. They are heading to Darwin so they have many more miles to go.
We stopped at the Gecko Guesthouse which was fantastic and would recommend it highly if ever travelling up this way - Dianne and Andrew made us feel most welcome.
We did all the usual tourist things at Cooktown including a visit to the Museum which is in the old Nunnery, a visit to Grassy Hill Lookout and also did a trip down to the Bloomfield Water Falls which was very beautiful and can only imagine what they look like in the wet season. We ended up doing all of the very famous Bloomfield Track except for the 32NM which is for 4WD vehicles ONLY
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| Anchor and Cannon from the Endeavour |
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| Cooktown Museum |
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| Bllomfield WaterFalls |
We are not expecting to arrive at Lizard until the 15th of maybe a bit later as have quite a few stops planned for the trip up. First stop will be Mackay Reef as we have some very calm weather forecast for the next few days so can't wait.
We are also expecting a visit from Leapy Lynda who is planning to meet us at Lizard Island for a week so will be great to have her on board.
Next blog may not be till we get back down south depending on how much internet service we have
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