We went off to Mossman Golf Club today to play in their midweek competition. The golf club is about 5 k’s north of Mossman about 20 odd k’s from Port Douglas and its surrounded by Cane fields. So straight away you know its going to be flat and it certainly was.

Reminded me of Tirhatuan when there was green grass on the fairways. Although the greens are not a patch on Tirhatuans but the tee boxes are much better.

It was a fairly long course to walk, with long walks between many holes. The layout obviously contributed to that, rather confusing as to why it was done that way but being flat it was not too arduous to push a buggy around for 18 holes.

Apparently the club is not travelling well, with it up for sale. Which is rather surprising considering its really the only alternative to the resort courses in the area. At a third of the cost to the resorts, I would have thought it would be doing well but that probably shows the level of affluence in Port Douglas. Rather pay $105 in PD than travel 20 k’s and pay $35.

So here is the CRAPP rating for Mossman Golf Club:

Design – 11 out of 20 (confusing layout of holes)

Condition – 10 out of 20 (whilst green there were some rough areas)

Cost – 14 out of 20 ($35 for 18 holes was reasonable)

Visual Appeal – 12 out of 20 (very flat and poor layout doesn’t help)

Facilities – 7 out of 10 (reasonable clubhouse, although rather old)

Ambience/Appeal – 7 out of 10 (was a good group of members for a Tuesday)

So a final score of 61 which is mid range and slightly better than Sea Reef which is surprising.

As we start travelling down the east coast there will be many courses to play so you will get many more opportunities to view my CRAPP in the coming weeks and months!

Well its the last day of winter for 2020 and what a winter its been. Other than my trips with work to the Norther hemisphere, we normally spend our winter months hibernating in the cold old Dandenongs but not this year. The coldest day we’ve had to endure was about 20, back in early June when we were in Perth. Become very accustomed to temperatures around the 30 mark, so I can understand now why so many older Victorians head north for the winter. Particularly Carlton supporters, as they have no reason to stay in Melbourne.

We spent the last day of winter at the Wildlife Habitat here in PD, and Susan was a star with the animals, particularly the birds. Susan’s gone from the old chook lady of Kallista to the old parrot lady of Port Douglas.

It would not be a wild life park in FNQ without a Croc and they had a particularly nasty one here but then again, I don’t think there is an old adult male saltie that isn’t nasty!

Today we started at the Port Douglas markets before venturing up thru Mossman, to the Daintree, Cape Tribulation and did some 4 Wheel Driving on the Bloomfield Track. It was the wettest day we have had since leaving Melbourne back in early February. Although not a lot of rain (it reminded us of the misty rain days during a Melbourne winter), we still had mid 20’s temperature so it was rather humid at times.

On this trip we had a greater appreciation of the Daintree Rainforest, maybe it was because of the rain unlike our previous visit where it was just hot! Unfortunately the weather was not conducive to good photos, not the blue sky and waters we have been accustomed too over the last few months.

Never the less it was a good day and we enjoyed the drive, particularly the river crossings on the Bloomfield track.

Today was golf day for the guys and we tackled Palmer Sea Reef, formerly Sea Temple until Clive Palmer took over ownership. I have to say that he has not done the course any favours, as I don’t believe its improved since I played on it last time, in fact its gone backwards.

Sea Reef is basically a resort course and one street there is only 3 houses, the same as when I played 8 years ago, so maybe that’s a statement in itself on the overall facility!

So in very windy conditions Andrew and I played in the club competition, which was stroke of the Blue tees. Basically the longest course we could play, so the challenge was on and unfortunately we came up short.

So here is the CRAPP report for Sea Reef:

Design: 13 out of 20 (very difficult layout to follow)

Condition: 9 out of 20 (disappointed in the tee boxes & greens)

Cost: 11 out of 20 (high $’s for what was on display)

Visual Appeal: 12 out of 20 (not as lush as we would expect in FNQ)

Facilities: 8 out of 10 (clubhouse good but practice area poor)

Ambience/Appeal: 6 out of 10 (just didn’t give us a warm feeling)

Final rating of 59. Not a great score considering the place and profile of the course. If you compared the Mornington Peninsula courses to Sea Reef, they would win hands down particularly as they cost less. We thought we would play with local members but that did not eventuate, so that certainly took away from the appeal of the Sea Reef.

We are off to play Mosman Golf Course on Tuesday, a more traditional member based club compared to Sea Reef and we are looking forward to hopefully playing with some of the locals.

From Mt Molloy we travelled over the ranges into Port Douglas. Interesting drive down thru the hills towing the van but we managed it successfully.

Our last stay in Port Douglas was about 8 years ago and we were interested to see if there were many changes in that time. Last time we visited in the wet season when it was horrendously hot and humid whilst now its mainly dry with high 20’s, so there is considerably more people here, even taking into account COVID.

I don’t know whether Port Douglas still has the same aura about it as it once had. It does seem a bit dated and old in places. The Main Street is very much for the foodie and those shopping for clothes, interspersed with bars. The weather is very windy so there has not been much activity with the boats going out to the reef. We don’t intend to do the reef on this trip but we will be heading up to the Daintree and Cape Tribulation on Sunday.

Have visited a few places so far around town and had a very nice meal at the Yacht Club. Markets for the girls and golf for the guys coming up over the next few days.

We finished off our last couple of days in Cooktown and then hit the road south. We really enjoyed Cooktown, very relaxing with good weather, although it got a bit blowy the last couple of days. Also great fresh seafood everywhere, even though I hate peeling prawns, the fruits of my labour was well rewarded.

We left Cooktown yesterday morning with an aim of having a couple of nights free camping in Mount Molloy, before heading east over the ranges into Port Douglas. Arrived at the Rifle Creek campground to find it chockers but managed to find a couple of places. Quick set up and then to the local pub, which is the oldest pub in Queensland (apparently) for a drink and a late lunch from the Cafe.

Had dinner around the campfire last night, it was good to have another fire going. Another one today as damper is on the menu tonight!

The Rifle Creek campground is rather large and based on our short time here, well used by all those travelling to and from the Tip (Cape York) and Cooktown. People were still coming in at 8pm last night. From backpackers to Grey Nomads, there are all sorts of vehicles, vans, campers here, you name it, its here. A restful day here today and then BBOT and Christies Retirement Tour are off to Port Douglas tomorrow.

We spent yesterday looking around town and ventured out on the sunset cruise last night. As we all know 2020 is the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s voyage to Australia. Cooktown had a big celebration planned in acknowledgement of this and unfortunately like all other plans around the country, COVD basically stopped everything.

Just a little bit of history. It was June 1770 after his visit to Botany Bay, Cook in HMS Endeavour was sailing up the east coast when they hit the Reef. Despite being badly damaged they managed to sail the Endeavour further north into a river opening and beach the ship and spend the next 6 weeks repairing the ship.

Of course we now know those places as Cooktown and the Endeavour River. It was 250 years ago on the 4th of August that Cook sailed the Endeavour back out to the ocean. The celebrations planned was to acknowledge this occasion and the “Young Endeavour” (HMS Endeavour replica) was to sail up from Sydney for the event, unfortunately this has not occurred. There are hopes the celebration will happen next year although on a lessor level for obvious reasons.

We are really enjoying our time here, the weather is a big plus of course, around 29/30 each day and about 20 overnight. So comfortable weather, much better than the single digits and rain back in Melbourne.

A little bit more exploring over the next couple of days before we head south and begin our long trek down the east coast and home. Susan and Andrew are hoping to get some fishing in here, so we might still get to have freshly caught fish for dinner yet.

Here we are in Cooktown, named after Captain James Cook who beached his ship “HMS Endeavour” here on the Endeavour River on the north coast of Australia 250 years ago, after holing the hull on the Great Barrier Reef. Of course we know these names now but back then it was a reef and a safe haven to repair his ship.

More about Cooktown in the next couple of days but today it was Saturday and that means “Golf”. Andrew and I played in the competition at the Cooktown Golf Club, which was the monthly medal. The Cooktown Golf Links is a 9 fairway, 18 tee golf course and it was enjoyable to play, especially after our last game at Karumba.

The Cooktown Golf Club has about 40 members and therefore is a volunteer organisation. We had a great time and I would like to weight the ratings in my CRAPP report but as I have said in the past, my assessment is based on what I encounter on the day, therefore the ratings are as follows:

Design 14 out of 20 (they have maximised the land available)

Condition 11 out of 20 (the course was very dry, it was the dry season)

Cost. 15 out of 20 (very reasonable cost of $20 for 18 holes)

Visual Appeal 15 out of 20 (great views of the surrounding hills)

Facilities 3 out of 10 (very ordinary clubhouse and amenities)

Ambience/Appeal 8 out of 10 (felt very comfortable with the locals)

So the final rating was 66 out of 100, a pretty good rating considering how dry it has been. Both Andrew and I enjoyed our day at Cooktown and the locals were very hospitable too.

The facilities let the overall rating down but it was still very comfortable in the conditions. I’m sure the course would be different in the “wet” but it was still very enjoyable to play now. The club is playing their Open next weekend and we can only hope it goes well.

Thank you Cooktown for an enjoyable round of GOLF!

We left Rocky Creek with the intention of staying at another free camp just outside Mt Molloy but decided to push on to Palmer River Roadhouse and stay at their van park, leaving us an easy 100 k’s into Cooktown the next day. It was an interesting drive thru the ranges as the height changed significantly.

We stopped for breakfast at a unique cafe in Mareeba. The “Hungry Pug” Cafe was a delight and the food was great. Sue and Andrew’s breakfast was something to see, a whole days meal in one!

We drove on thru Mt Molloy, only to see one of the best country pubs we’ve seen on our trip glide by, so we will be staying at Mt Molloy on our return down south on the way to Port Douglas.

Palmer River Roadhouse was it, there was nothing else there but it was a top spot and I think it had the best showers of any place we’ve stayed on this trip. Cooking dinner on the campfire is always fun and the weather was perfect. Really enjoyed our stay here, the owners were very friendly and happy to have “Victorians” staying with them.

Next stop Cooktown, a place I’ve always “endeavoured” to get too.

After leaving Undara we travelled north thru Ravenshoe, Atherton and Tolga to free camp at the Rocky Creek Memorial camping ground.

Ravenshoe is the highest (elevation wise) town in Queensland, so we decided to have our morning tea there. After our stop we travelled further north to Atherton, and Tolga and then onto the camp ground. After camp was set up, it was back to Atherton for some provisioning.

Atherton is the centre of the Atherton Tablelands and is quite a large town, much bigger than we thought it would be. In the past, town’s were measured by the size of their church or pub. Now if you see a Bunnings or Macca’s, when you come into town you know its a decent size and Atherton had them all. All the major food groups were covered, Macca’s, KFC, Pizza, Chinese and Indian, also lot’s of cafe’s.

Our camp area for the night is a memorial ground at Rocky Creek which was the site of 2 Army General Hospitals during WW2. In fact the hospitals, at one stage were the largest in the Southern Hemisphere with over 6,000 personnel on site.

Now its a large memorial ground that allows free camping and the Grey Nomads are taking advantage of it as it was packed. One of the highlights was the memorial stones recognising the many military units that served or formed from the Atherton tablelands during the WW2.

Its been amazing visiting or viewing all the war memorials around Australia, from big to very small towns country. Each place recognises and remembers what their locals have down in protecting Australia in all its conflicts. Rocky Creek was another special memorial.