LOOKING FORWARD 7
THESUNDAYMAIL.COM.AU SUNDAY JANUARY 15 2017
Need to know
SLOW ROAD TO PARADISE
Stay and play: Mantra Trilogy on the Esplanade at Cairns has rooms from $115 per night (mantra.com.au). In Port Douglas the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas Resort beckons with a touch of luxury for $289 per night (sheratonportdouglas.com). Sleep surrounded by the rainforest at Daintree Eco Lodge & Spa from $345 per night (daintree-ecolodge.com.au) Not to be missed: Keep your hands inside the boat when you take a lagoon tour at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures (crocodileadventures.com). Try the paperbark wrapped baked coral trout at Bistro H (harrisonsrestaurant.com.au). Get wet feet on a Cooyar Beach Coastal Beach and Mangrove Walk guided by Kuku Yalanji Cultural Habitat Tours (kycht.com.au). Sites to see: queensland.com, visitportdouglasdaintree.com
Bloomfiel
Bloomfield rack Cape Tribulation
Great Barrier Reef Drive
Daintree Rainforest National Park
Daintree
Daintree River
DRIVE TIME: Captain Cook Highway near Port Douglas. Picture: Tourism and Events Queensland. Mossman
Hitch a lift with Kerry Heaney and explore one of Australia’s great coastal drives at your leisure
Mossman Gorge
Cooya Beach
Port Douglas
Wildlife habitat
Four Mile Beach Oak Beach
THE first hint is a glimpse of aqua bursting between the trees, but it’s not until the highway reaches down and sashays along the Coral Sea coastline that the breathtaking beauty of the Great Barrier Reef Drive is revealed. Stretching from metro Cairns to the tropical jungle of Queensland’s Cape Tribulation, this is 140km of easy driving traversing two World Heritage areas. It dips into remote beaches, lingers at tranquil coastal villages and skirts crocodile habitats. Combining Captain Cook Highway and Cape Tribulation Road, Great Barrier Reef Drive can be completed in just two-and-a-half hours. But for seniors with time to spare, why not slow down, smell the sea spray, and take a leisurely fortnight to cover the same distance? Dubbed one of Australia’s greatest coastal drives, equal to Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, it is a well maintained, smooth bitumen journey until Cape Tribulation and the Bloomfield track which develops into four-wheel drive territory. Just north of Cairns, tempting stops such as Trinity Beach, Palm Cove and Ellis Beach start to appear as signposts on the highway. A short diversion takes you right to the coastline where holidaymakers have already found their heaven. Luckily there’s plenty of accommodation, from high-end resorts to caravan parks, all sharing the same relaxed beach outlook.
From here, the highway hugs the coast breaking the rainforest’s reach to the sea. Depending on tides, you might see some impressive rock stacks on the stony stretch between Pebbly and Ellis beaches. It’s just locals having fun in between high tides and storms. Stretch your legs at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures near Wangetti, but not too far as those crocs put on an authentic performance when it comes to grabbing a feed. Hartley’s has plenty of other local critters which you may see in the wild or not. You might be happy to be on the other side of a fence when it comes to both cassowaries and crocs. Halfway along the highway, Rex Lookout offers views north and south along the coastline. Hang gliders love this spot, and there are often opportunities for a tandem flight. Following the coastline through the Macalister Range National Park, past quiet Oak Beach, the next tempting deviation takes you into Port Douglas. Wildlife Habitat, on the roundabout as you turn, is a place where visitors can cuddle a koala, snake, crocodile or stick insect and grab all the bragging rights with a photographic record. Port Douglas has changed a lot since Christopher Skase rocked into town in the 1980s. His flagship Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas Resort was a playground for the rich and famous including Bill Clinton, Mick Jagger
SMART WAY TO STRENGTH HANNAH MCDONALD IMAGINE working out in a hi-tech gym where computers help to take the stress out of exercising. At Palm Lake Resort Cooroy-Noosa, residents are taking advantage of a state-ofthe-art Milon strength and endurance circuit which uses smart card technology to adjust anatomy and training programs. “It’s straightforward, safe and effective,
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offering whole body training, including your most important muscle, your heart,” Milon’s Marcin Lazinski said. “The equipment relies on electronic resistance — not working with weights — meaning no one is able to see another person’s training settings. It also means less reliance on the need for personal training sessions. “Unfortunately, as we get older we tend to forget we must exercise our muscles; as a general rule of thumb we lose some one per cent of muscle mass per year from the age of 35.” The strength and endurance circuit can be done in just over 17 minutes, with users encouraged to train three times a week. “You can’t really get it wrong — all workouts are tracked so that training can be monitored. All you have to do is insert your card and enjoy the workout,” Mr Lazinski said.
and Matthew McConaughey. After 25 years, it has been refurbished with restrained elegance but there’s still enough marble to ensure Christopher is not spinning in his grave. Port Douglas is much more that a jumping off point from which to explore the Great Barrier Reef. Unless you are extremely fit, drive rather than walk up Flagstaff Hill for a view over the Four Mile Beach and the Coral Sea. The town has some great dining. Try The Little Larder for breakfast, Sassi Cucina e Bar for a seafood lunch and Bistro H (by Harrisons) for elegant tropical dining filled with local flavours. Local experiences not-to-be-missed include the expansive Sunday markets and ‘meeting’ George, the 250kg groper who checks in around 5pm daily to see what the people are doing at On the Inlet Seafood Restaurant, Dickson Inlet. Back on the Great Barrier Reef Drive, the road snakes its way through cane fields towards Mossman Gorge. The gateway to the gorge is now the Indigenous eco-tourism Mossman Gorge Centre where visitors can learn the rich history of the area on a Dreamtime Walk guided by the Kuku Yalanji.
Rex Point Lookout Hartley’s Creek Crocodile Farm
Ellis Beach Palm Cove Beach Trinity Beach
Cairns On the coast at Cooya Beach, Indigenous Kuku Yalanji guides share traditional fishing and gathering techniques with visitors. It’s a wander through muddy mangroves and coastal mudflats to find crabs and mussels for dinner. Cross the old-fashioned cable ferry on the Daintree River to travel through some of oldest rainforest in the world. This is cassowary country so watch out for this distinctive and potentially dangerous bird. The road winds through the rainforest revealing several boardwalks, places to stop for a taste of local fruit-infused ice cream and a tea plantation. A stroll along one of the many beaches will verify this is really where the rainforest meets the sea. Whether you take two-and-a-half hours, two days or two weeks to complete this journey, it will be one filled with memorable experiences unique to this region.