Oliver Creek empties into the substantial Noah Creek near the lookout at the halfway point of the stroll. It's croc central here so I was pretty happy to be up on the boardwalk and not down in the Mangroves.
Once we left Port Douglas on our FNQ road trip Sam and I headed up to Cooktown. Now we had some choices for our relocation, we could of headed inland through Mareeba and added 150 or so kilometres to our drive or we could head up the Bloomfield Track. Up until the day before we were due to leave Port Douglas the inland route was the only option as the Bloomfield Track was closed due to flooding, however with a few days of good weather the Bloomfield Track opened so we decided to take the shorter - but way more interesting route. What that meant was that instead of driving through the inland tropical savannah country we headed up through Cape Tribulation and the Daintree National Park rainforest, which allowed us to stop and do a couple of short walks along the way.
Crossing the Daintree River under grey skies.
We didn't see any crocs in the Daintree River this morning although they are definitely out there.
This walk starts right beside the Cape Tribulation Road.
The first little walk that we did was one called the Madja Boardwalk, this walk starts right beside the Cape Tribulation Road so we didn't have to deviate away from our journey north. We'd been in the tropics for a couple of weeks when we did this stroll so the humidity wasn't hitting us like a ton of bricks anymore, although jumping out of the ute we could still feel it. This walk heads into the rainforest for a couple of minutes before following Oliver Creek downstream through some extensive mangrove forests. As the name implies this walk was along a raised boardwalk which not only makes the walking very easy and comfortable, but also kept us well away from the Saltwater Crocodile habitat down in the mangroves.
Initially we followed Oliver Creek downstream...
... along the nice boardwalk.
The Daintree Rainforest.
There is so much biodiversity up in the Daintree National Park.
I actually did a walk on this North Queensland trip where I had to walk through some long sections of Mangroves - I was pretty happy to be on the boardwalk and out of the mud on this stroll.
Staghorn Fern - Daintree National Park.
After meandering along for around ten minutes we took a short side trip out to a lookout to the spot where Oliver Creek empties into the substantial Noah Creek, once again this looks like croc central so I was pretty happy to be three metres above water level on the boardwalk. Once we'd visited the lookout we re-joined circuit and started heading back towards the ute. Out walk back passing through yet more mangrove forest before the country again transitioned back to the typical rainforest flora of palms, pandanus and ferns.
Noah Creek, Daintree National Park.
Madja Boardwalk, Daintree National Park.
Is everyone thinking the same thing - or is it just me?
Looks like this is another walk done wearing my Hiking Havaianas!
Mangroves on the Madja Walk - Daintree National Park.
The Dirt.
According to my GPS we walked around 1.2 kilometres and climbed 57 metres on this easy stroll. Obviously this isn't a hardcore bushwalk and if that's what you looking for then don't think about doing this walk - on the other hand if you don't have a lot time, you are not acclimatised to the humidity, or like me you don't mind an easy stroll every now and again then this walk is well worth doing. This walk would also be suitable for wheelchairs and prams I think. The highlight of this walk for me was obviously the Mangrove Forest, anytime I get to see mangroves up close I always seem to enjoy the experience. I used the notes and map out of the Woodslane book Best Walks around Cairns & the Tablelands along with my Alltrails App and my GPS today.
Relevant Posts.
Moving out of the Mangrove forest we re-entered the rainforest.
Time to head off on our next little adventure.
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