I’ve been hanging out to tell you all about the great ten days camping we had in late June, early July this year and seeing as it is World Cassowary Day today, I thought a post about camping in the Daintree where we got to see a real life cassowary and his chick, would be fitting. After a busy mango and avocado season at Blue Sky Produce, we were counting down the days until we could hitch Black Betty up and hit the road for our annual camping holiday. We had opted for something close to home this year, something not as costly in terms of fuel and not having to spend as much time driving with a 1 year old in the car! We were also in need of some quality family time to relax, read and unwind, so wanted a trip with plenty of downtime in it. It was going to be hard to beat our Lawn Hill trip from last year, but a round trip via the Daintree and Cooktown looked like just the right little jaunt for our Fealy Family Adventure for 2015!
We pulled the kids out of school a couple of days before then end of term, hoping to give us a head start on the school holiday crowds and managed to get away by 9am on a Thursday morning. By 10.30am we were sitting at the Daintree River, waiting to get the ferry (info on the ferry costs and times can be found here) across to the other side and set up camp for the day! It felt a little strange having such a short day of travelling! We paid our $17 one way for the camper and car to get across and were lucky enough to be first in line with a less then 10 minute wait – woot, woot! We had heard that wait times for the ferry can be up to one or two hours so we would definitely recommend arriving at the ferry early during peak school holiday and tourist times.
Peter Prado and Black Betty waiting to get the ferry across the Daintree River
As we were so early in the day, we took our time driving to our campground and stopped in to check out the Koala Beach Resort Campground (check out the reviews and photos on trip advisor here). It has gotten pretty run down and as it had rained recently the campground looked quite swampy, but we thought it would be a lovely quiet place to camp and is almost right on the beach! The were a couple of blokes working hard renovating the place, so we would be keen to check it out again another time! We stopped at the Daintree Mount Alexandra lookout too which is spectacular, and as a side note – you get full mobile phone reception there!
Daintree Lookout – Spectacular!
We then headed to our campground at Lync Haven’s Rainforest Caravan and Camping Ground and were all set up by lunchtime! We had originally wanted to camp at Cape Tribulation Camping but after leaving it to the week before we left to book, we couldn’t get a site! In the end though, we were really happy with Lync Haven. It was nice and quiet, with lovely grounds and heaps at the campground to do! Snakes and birds in cages which the kids loved walking down to look at, resident cassowary, a kangaroo enclosure and a great walking track through the Daintree rainforest. There is apparently a resident crocodile too, but we didn’t get to see him during our stay. It rained quite heavily during the night during our stay here, but we were very happy to report that Black Betty did not leak at all! Kipp was also sick with fevers and the flu for our three days here which meant not much sleep for all of us during the night, but thankfully we all managed to nap during the day in the quiet of the campground.
Our camp site at Lync Haven
Lync Haven Rainforest Caravan and Camping Ground
Camp Kitchen at Lync Haven
Probably the highlight of our stay at Lync Haven was having the cassowaries (Dad and Chick) wander right into our campsite every day! We really got a terrific view of them and even had mum wander through one afternoon too! Matt wasn’t impressed that they kept using one of our awning poles as a toilet stop though – VERY disgusting!
We really enjoyed a wander through the rainforest around the campground too. Easy walk with the kids and really pretty!
We had a morning out to visit the Daintree Discovery Centre which was a nice way to spend a few hours. The Discovery Centre was quite affordable for a family (they had a great locals deal) and the kids enjoyed exploring there. The Canopy Tower and Aerial Walkways in particular were lots of fun, and the kids loved the personal audio guides! The Daintree Rainforest is widely accepted as the oldest tropical rainforest in the world, so we went there expecting to see some massive, old rainforest trees, but it wasn’t like that at all. The focus at the Discovery Centre is really more on giving visitors an education and in-depth snapshot of the Daintree ecosystem. The centre is a leader in the field of ecotourism, and in particular, environmental conservation – so that gives you a better picture of what you will see/learn about on a visit there.
We also really enjoyed a bit of time playing in the sand at Cow Bay too. We didn’t swim as we were worried about crocodiles, but I think people do swim here and the signage seemed to reflect that you could. It was my favourite beach along the Daintree Coast and now that we know that the Daintree is really not that far of a drive for us – I would seriously consider heading to Cow Bay for a non-crowded beach day trip – it was really that beautiful!
We used Lync Haven Campground as our base to explore Cape Tribulation and the boys went Jungle Surfing while we were here too, but I will do a separate post on those! The Daintree was beautiful and we would absolutely say that you must visit this area when you visit Tropical North Queensland!
On, more memory lane!! Love it! That view from the lookout is just spectacular. Your camera does it perfect justice! It really does look that that in real life, just fabulous. Keen to read more about the Judgle Surfing. That, we didn’t even know about. It will have to be a virtual experience, rather than memory lane…LOL!!!
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