Spotlight: Port Douglas, Qld

Why tow a caravan to Port Douglas?

That was easy to answer when we used to call Melbourne home, what with its often-grey, cold and dreary winters. Contrast that with sunny days, abundant tropical flowers and foliage, and long sandy beaches, lapped by tranquil waves: what’s not to like?

But it hasn't been so clear-cut since we moved house, approximately half-way between Melbourne and Port Douglas near Queensland's Gold Coast, living among swaying palms, cloudless winter sunshine and mid-20s temperatures five or six days a week.

Did I mention the great surf break at Burleigh Heads in our 'backyard' and a seemingly endless sandy beach stretching north and south? Despite all this, we’ve made the road trip back to ‘Port’ twice with caravan in tow, in the two years we’ve lived in Queensland. Why, you may ask?

The lure of tropical north

Fair question. We had a similar answer when friends previously asked us why we drove to Noosa Heads, staying in the crowded Noosa River Holiday Park, despite its high site fees and the necessity to book months ahead, year-round (position, position, position).

We did so because we could walk to small but sheltered north-facing Hasting Street beach, with its upmarket shops and restaurants behind and its beachside walk through to the adjacent National Park.

Despite the crowds, Noosa offers that tantalising knife-edge between upmarket life and on-your-own wilderness...

Now that we’re ‘up here’, Noosa is an easy first-night stop en route to Port Douglas, but the reasons for towing a caravan around 1900km further north, are similar.

Like Noosa, Port Douglas is ‘on the edge’ between worldly and wild Australia.

Jacarandas, restaurants, bars and shop-lined Macrossan Street is the ‘Hastings Street’ of far north Queensland, but with a much more laid back feel.

Parking is almost as hard to find outside your destination, but everything you need is there in the one spot: a big Woolies supermarket, Malones gourmet butchery that will vacuum seal nice cuts for your forthcoming venture up the ‘Cape’, Mocka’s ever-busy bakery, where you can buy delicious scallop and cod pies, and the Iron Bark Hotel/Motel, which serves barra, chips and salad daily off the footpath tables for about $16.

Then to finish the day, there’s sundowners at ‘Tin Shed’ just a stone'’s throw from the passing cruise and reef-diving tour boats on the Port Douglas inlet as they return to their moorings.

Alternatively, there’s river-side pub-style dining at the Port Douglas Yacht Club, where you can go out for a free sail with members from 4pm on Wednesdays, provided you purchase a meal afterwards.

Other handy amenities

Plus, there’s a post office where you can re-direct your mail for collection, three local caravan parks and the coin-in-the slot Port Auto Wash 6km away at Craiglie -- where you turn off the Captain Cook Highway, and can shed your red Cape York dirt.

Talking of caravan parks, two of the three are easy walking distance from Macrossan Street – the crowded, but superbly-located Tropic Van Village, whose back gate gives you almost direct access to the patrolled section of ‘Port’s’ famous four-mile beach and the larger and roomier Pandanus Tourist Park, a bit further back from town along Davidson Street.

Neither is what you'd call a ‘family’ caravan park and that’s not surprising given the grey demographic of those strolling Macrossan Street in winter. For that you need to go to the BIG4 Port Douglas Glengarry Holiday Park, 9km back towards Cairns off the Captain Cook Highway.

I’ve stayed at all three over the years, but to be honest, both local caravan parks are a little dog-eared, although all the important facilities are there: clean toilet and shower facilities, dump point, power, water, laundry, communal clothes line, rubbish collection.

But you have the choice – ‘convenient’ or ‘kids’. Now being of ‘that age’, we usually stay at Pandanus, because its roomier, shadier and has more local vegetation.

Social setting

Weekends at ‘Port’ are very social, as every Sunday there’s a local market on the foreshore at the junction of Macrossan and Wharf Streets, where you can buy freshly-squeezed sugar cane juice, all manner of herbal cures for things you never knew you had and locally-crafted clothing. Then, it’s off for a coffee or lunch with friends.

Nearby, quaint St Mary’s timber chapel is perennially busy marrying people in the most idyllic of settings, with receptions usually held on the adjacent Sugar Wharf.

Most days at some stage, we’ll find our way onto 'Port's' spectacular Four mile Beach – either for a fast sunrise stroll, washed down with a beachside café latte at the end of Macrossan Street, or on the sand with a picnic lunch watching the skills of the kite surfers at the wilder southern end of the beach.

Gateway to Cape Tribulation

But this bonhomie is just one side of ‘Port’. The other exists just an hour’s drive away on the other side of the  Daintree River via its regular (and expensive) car ferry. The first 35km to Cape Tribulation is now sealed, but sudden summer rains can leave you unexpectedly stranded for an hour or so between fast-flowing watercourses, with the occasional fresh-water croc flushing past. When the rain stops, the traffic moves and everything is safe and deceptively normal again.

The bitumen runs out just north of Cape Tribulation, where we spend a day or so at superbly sited ‘Cape Trib Camping Ground, which has a wood-fired pizza bar and backs right onto the bush beach with its mangrove crocs and in-season stingers and unimpeded views of nearby Cape Tribulation itself, a short sandy stroll away.

Beyond the bitumen, the road becomes the winding, hilly and unsealed Bloomfield Track that takes you further north via Wujal Wujal country to the historic and rustic Lion’s Den Hotel at Helensvale, where you can camp overnight and enjoy a typical pub meal.

You can tow your caravan there from ‘Port’ via Cape Tribulation, but the unsealed road is hilly and narrow in parts, so you need to allow care and time. However, it’s far more interesting than taking the longer bitumen route to Cooktown, via Mt. Malloy, the Peninsula Development Road and Lakeland.

By then, we’re well north of sophistication, well on the way to Cape York, but that’s another adventure that Port Douglas opens up to you...

Scenic route home

Returning from Port Douglas to our SE Qld home, we usually dodge the crowded but spirits-raising scenic coastal drive back to Cairns and the endless regional towns south with their traffic cloying 40km/h traffic zones.

Instead, we prefer the high road from the small free-camp at Mt.Malloy to Mareeba and Atherton to The Oasis Roadhouse, where we take the Gregory Development Road to Charters Towers, with several more all-bitumen choices south from there.

It’s slightly longer than the coastal route, but less stressful and with different scenery, but that’s your choice. We try to vary our route each time, but when returning inland usually stay at the huge free-camp that spreads out on both sides of the roads before ‘Charters’ and offers you the opportunity to bush camp away from neighbours if you wish, along with the ability to light a fire.

That’s why we’ve been to Port Douglas about six times over the past 10 years and why we’ll be back, either as our destination or on the way to somewhere else...