At the end of 2023, Cyclone/Tropical Storm Jasper caused a lot of damage to the roads south, and north of Port Douglas. Today, February 2024, you can cross the river and enter the Daintree National Park and the main body of the Daintree Rainforest. However, the Daintree is only partially open, you cannot drive to Cooktown along the coast, and only one boardwalk is partially open. You can still visit Mossman Gorge, Cow Bay, the Daintree Discovery Centre and Thornton Beach. It is certainly worth visiting, and you have a good chance of seeing a cassowary or two!
July 12th 2024 (today)- there is an unplanned outage at the Daintree Ferry this morning. The ferry is closed this morning, Thursday, hopefully it will be open again soon.
The authors have visited recently, and all of the information on this page is up to date. If you still have questions, get in touch.
Cow Bay and the Daintree Rainforest, north of the Daintree River. There are some beautiful unspoiled beaches up on The Cape!
The beaches are beautiful north of Port Douglas on the Cape, and unspoiled, but you can’t swim, there too many crocodiles.
Tours To The Daintree and Cape Tribulation
The Daintree Rainforest is the oldest rainforest in the world and it’s part of the heritage-listed Wet Tropics of Australia. The main body of the Daintree Rainforest is north of the Daintree River, which can be crossed by ferry about an hour north of Port Douglas. However, you can visit the Daintree Rainforest at Mossman Gorge, south of the river and only about 20 minutes drive from Port Douglas, this may be a better option for visitors at the moment. If you don’t have your own car, various tours and shuttles are available and we’ll give you booking links further down the page.
Tours to the Daintree Rainforest ARE running after the cyclone damage and some hotels and restaurants are open.
Visiting Mossman Gorge is one of the most popular things to do locally, you should allow half a day to see the gorge when planning your Port Douglas itinerary.
Ancient trees are precious. There is little else on Earth that plays host to such a rich community of life within a single living organism. – Sir David Attenborough
You can walk in the rainforest at Mossman Gorge.
Mossman Gorge, swimming is not encouraged as fast-flowing water can be dangerous, but the water should be too cold for crocodiles and people do swim here.
Cape Tribulation is a locality within the Daintree National Park. When people refer to “The Cape” they’re normally referring to Cape York, the most northerly part of Australia on the east side. Cape Tribulation is a part of the Douglas Shire, north of Thornton Beach, south of Emmagen Creek.
Under normal conditions, you can drive to Cape Tribulation in an ordinary car, but currently, the road is closed to visitors at Noah Creek, just south of Cape Tribulation village. We’ll try to keep this post updated with current road restrictions.
You can not swim at Cape Tribulation or any of the beaches north of Port Douglas because of crocodiles and marine stingers, (deadly jellyfish) in the summer months. There have been fatalities.
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