PORT DOUGLAS three ways
Two World Heritage sites, one long weekend. Port Douglas delivers reef, rainforest and everything in between. Here's how to make the most of three days on Kuku Yalanji Country.
WORDS Catherine Best
Port Douglas is a frontier town. A laid-back tourist village straddled by two World Heritage-listed sites, the Daintree (Kaba Kada) Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. A springboard to various underwater and under-the-rainforest-canopy adventures, Port Douglas also has beach-resort cred. It’s a place where you can snorkel with turtles one day and walk beneath ancient fig trees another, exploring the town’s vibrant dining and shopping scene in between. Here’s a three-day itinerary for the ultimate long weekend on Kuku Yalanji land in Tropical North Queensland.
Day 1
Grab your hat and ready your sea legs because the best introduction to Port Douglas is from the water. Sailaway Port Douglas offers one of the reef’s most intimate experiences, a small-vessel cruise that takes guests to secluded corners of the Great Barrier Reef, away from the crowds, including the remarkable Mackay Coral Cay.
Step aboard the 25-metre, custom-built sailing catamaran Sailaway VII and you have a difficult decision to make. Sit in the comfortable air-conditioned lounge indoors, or laze on the outdoor foredeck where the tropical breeze and salt air conjure a holiday mood? Soon the boat cruises past Snapper Island and Wonga Beach, where the mighty Daintree River spills into the ocean, and onward to Cape Tribulation, framed by rainforest-clad mountains that fold down into the Coral Sea. Here, the rainforest famously meets the reef. On the horizon, a white ribbon of sand emerges like a mirage. This is Mackay Cay, a desert sand island with James Bond vibes. No filter required. Translucent turquoise water laps at impossibly white sand, and passengers blink. Is this paradise all ours to explore? The onboard marine biologist explains the rich biodiversity of the reef, home to more than 1,600 species of fish and more than 600 varieties of coral, and you’re itching to get your snorkel and mask in the water.
There are snorkelling sessions at two different moorings, including a guided snorkel, as well as opportunities to view the reef from the comfort of the glass-bottom boat. Lazing on the sand cay with distant views of the Daintree is pretty special, too. Underwater, see schools of tropical fish, giant clams, turtles and reef sharks as you glide over gardens of colourful sponges and fan, plate and staghorn corals. “Mackay’s got so much variety if you compare it to other reefs,” fleet superintendent Damien Friedrichs explains. “From a snorkeller’s point of view, you’re seeing a bit more variety of fish and corals, which is lovely.” Snorkelling is hungry work, and the lunch spread doesn’t disappoint. Feast on a smorgasbord of tiger prawns, peppered roast beef and Italian herbed chicken with a variety of fresh salads. When it’s time to turn back towards Port Douglas, the boat sidles past Rudder and Tongue reefs. Keep your eyes peeled for breaching whales. Arriving at the Low Isles (Wungkun), another mesmerising sand cay – this one with a cheery lighthouse – the boat slows, the sails fill, and you can sit back and enjoy the exhilaration of cruising by wind power. The short journey back to the mainland is over too fast. Today is going to be hard to top.
Day 2
Rise with the birds to soak up the tranquillity of Port Douglas before the holidaymakers stir. Flagstaff Hill at Island Point on the northern end of Four Mile Beach is the best spot to watch the sunrise. See the Coral Sea shimmer in golden hues as the horizon gives birth to a new day, keeping a lookout for humpback whales (June to September) and dolphins. Explore the lighthouse and Anzac War Memorial before following the short clifftop trail down to Four Mile Beach. The town’s iconic sweep of palm-fringed golden sand is even more majestic in the early morning light. At 7am, the beans start grinding at ZanDers Beach Cafe. Pop in for a caffeine hit and a fruit-filled Beach Acai Bowl, no shoes required. You won’t want anything too heavy as the morning will be spent stretching it out with Yoga on the Beach or engaging your core on a standup-paddleboarding session with Windswell. Cool off afterwards with a swim. The beach is lifesaver patrolled and a jellyfish net is in place during the stinger season (November to May). Soon it’s nearing midday. Don’t worry, you’re on Port Douglas time. Mosey into Macrossan Street; PD’s main drag is bursting with eateries and boutiques, and there’s not a traffic light in sight. Peruse contemporary Indigenous art at Ngarru Gallery, pick up a new cossie at mother-and-daughter-run Tshinta fashion boutique, shop for locally handcrafted gifts at With Sugar, and do as the label says at Whileaway Bookshop and Cafe.
Grab a bite to eat at one of the many cafes for sustenance on the move, you can’t go past Grant Street Kitchen Bakery (try the Jungle Curry Pie with chicken, coconut, ginger, kaffir lime and chilli). On Sunday mornings, the Port Douglas Market in Anzac Park is the place to be, bursting with more than 100 stalls ranging from fresh produce and hawker food to souvenirs, arts and crafts. In the afternoon, pop in to Wildlife Habitat, an eco-certified native wildlife sanctuary where you can hand-feed wallabies, see cassowaries, koalas and Lumholtz’s tree kangaroos, and even swim with saltwater crocodiles in a glass enclosure. Prefer to see salties in the wild? Hire a pontoon boat from Port Douglas Boat Hire on the marina and cruise the mangrove-hemmed waterways of Dickson Inlet. Spending the afternoon poolside is okay too, especially if you’re staying at the five-star Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, famous for its two hectares of swimming lagoons. In the early evening, end the day as it began, watching the sunset at Rex Smeal Park, at the northern end of Island Point. Dinner Calls and no PD restaurant is more iconic than Nautilus, where global A-listers including Bill and Hillary Clinton have been dining for more than 70 years. Follow the path through the forest where an open-air table beneath the palms awaits. Indulge in a five-course degustation featuring Nautilus’s signature crispy-fried whole coral trout, dusted with kaffir lime, salt and pepper flour and drizzled with chilli and Thai-spiced caramel.
JOURNEY PLANNER
The best time to visit Far North Queensland is in the dry season from April to September, when you can expect warm temperatures, low humidity and clear skies. Fly into Cairns Airport, a scenic one-hour drive south of Port Douglas. Private transfers are available for the drive, tracing the coastline along the Captain Cook Highway, or hire a car from the airport. Direct flights to Cairns are available from most capital cities or via Brisbane.
Day 3
Twenty minutes from Port Douglas, but a world away from the bustle of modern civilisation, lies Mossman Gorge, gateway to the Daintree Rainforest and crown of the World Heritage-listed Wet Tropics. Step into the Mossman Gorge Cultural Centre, an award-winning ecotourism facility and meeting place for the Ngadiku Dreamtime Walk. As your Kuku Yalanji guide leads you through a smoking ceremony to ward off bad spirits, prepare to be immersed in a rainforest story 180 million years in the making. In a 90-minute guided walk through an off-limits-to-the-general-public section of the gorge, your guide will peel back the ecological and cultural wonders of the Daintree. Feel goosebumps as you explore the world’s oldest rainforest through the eyes of a custodian from the oldest continuously living culture on Earth. As you tread quietly across the dim forest floor, beneath towering strangler figs and between cycads dating back to the age of the dinosaurs, your guide reveals the secrets of the rainforest. A unique ecosystem that’s a supermarket, pharmacy, hardware store and university all rolled into one. See culturally significant sites and traditional bark shelters as you meander over babbling rainforest streams. Your guide pauses to point out bush foods, medicinal plants and explain how to find drinking water from plants and trees. Learn which trees can be carved into tools such as boomerangs and spears, and how to read the rainforest like a medicine cabinet. There are plants to relieve insect bites, reduce fever and provide energy, and stinging plants to avoid.
Learn about the 3,000 plant species many of them rare and endemic that call the Daintree home. Participate in an ochre painting demonstration and see how bush soap can be teased from the rainforest. Pause and listen. Can you hear a cassowary scratching in the understorey, or see a Boyd Forest Dragon basking in the sun? This year, the Ngadiku Dreamtime Walk (Nar-di-gul, meaning stories and legends from a long time ago) celebrates 40 years. Elder Roy Gibson was a young Kuku Yalanji man when he recognised an opportunity to share culture with visitors to Mossman Gorge. In 1986, he started the Dreamtime Walk, which has since been shared with more than 500,000 people, employing a 60-per-cent Indigenous workforce. The experience ends with a traditional bush tea where you can tuck into freshly baked damper. The perfect way to mark the end of an extraordinary three days in Far North Queensland.
BOOK YOUR EXPERIENCE
Sailaway Port Douglas’s Rainforest to Reef package combines a guided Dreamtime Walk through Mossman Gorge with an afternoon at the Low Isles and a sunset sail back to Port Douglas. All-inclusive, with courtesy transfers, meals and beverages. Adult fares from $495. sailawayportdouglas.com Each experience can also be booked separately at sailawayportdouglas.com and mossmangorge.com.au