I Went Back to Port Douglas | Riding the Captain Cook Highway
A return ride to Port Douglas along the Captain Cook Highway — one of Australia’s most scenic coastal roads through Far North Queensland.
I went back to Port Douglas — the first place I called home in Australia.
This ride follows the Captain Cook Highway from Cairns to Port Douglas, one of the most scenic coastal drives in Far North Queensland.
But this isn’t a guide. It’s a return. If you have not already - read what we're about at 2WDriven and join the ride, here.
The Captain Cook Highway is widely considered one of Australia’s best coastal rides, winding between rainforest and ocean as it hugs the coastline north of Cairns.
Riding the Captain Cook Highway
I hadn’t been back to Port Douglas in a while.
It was the first place I lived when I arrived in Australia, and for a long time it felt like home. I’ll never forget disembarking that flight at Cairns and my first journey along the Captain Cook Highway, sweat dripping off my forehead, eyes wide. I married at St Mary's Church in Port Douglas in 2013.
The Ride Back
The run up the Captain Cook Highway hasn’t changed in its natural beauty. The MacAllister Ranges still fall down into the ocean with the Highway clinging into the edges and it sweeps around hair pin bends on the way to Port Douglas. The road is no stranger to closures in the wet season but with relatively few big wets in the last ten years - meant Cyclone Jasper in December 2024 came as a shock to many.
Cyclone Jasper and Ellis Beach
A minor wind event, but a one in a hundred year rain event that brought around 3 metres of rain in under a week in the Cairns and Port Douglas area (up to 5 metres in the Daintree in the same period!). The sheer quantity of water caused huge landslides to fall onto the Captain Cook Highway at Ellis Beach - thousands of tonnes of rock, closing the Captain Cook Highway for weeks.
Two years later there are still three one way sections of traffic in place on the highway as engineering work continues to shore up the steep cliff side and try to prevent further landslides. The average time it takes a local to drive from Port Douglas to Cairns, with the road works is now around 30 minutes extra each way - a really significant impact to the local economy.
I drove round into Ellis Beach Bar and Grill at first light, the road still quiet. That stretch of coastline really never gets old. There was a speed camera there for years - but I think it has now been removed judging by how locals drive through. I used to come here to music nights now and then in shuttle buses from Port Douglas. They still do a great potato wedge from what I hear and the reggae nights are definitely worth coming for. Driving on I noted that the renovations to Ellis Beach Surf Club are well underway after the Club receiving funds from Surf Life Saving Queensland - this will for sure be a great place to stop for families and kids in future seasons.
Riding up past Wangetti and Hartleys Crocodile Adventures I stopped at the Rex Lookout to take in the sunrise and to have a moment of reflection. I was joined by two other local riders also out for a morning ride.
I stopped briefly at the Mowbray River to check if it was low tide and if I could see a Croc on the opposite bank of the river, but no luck - it was high tide. I remember in 2012 before Council put the new lay-by in, I was Barra fishing off the bridge. A load of local kids were hanging meat over the bridge on a rope - to attract a croc. It was attracting more crocs to the banks, apparently, and becoming a danger to tourists who were not croc wise. The Council decided in their wisdom the Croc would need to be trapped and removed.
Cairns to Port Douglas — A Coastal Ride
A few weeks later I came back again to fish and saw the croc was lying in the mangroves next to the big trap with its mouth wide open and a bird on its trap (birds commonly are accepted by crocs as they remove parasites). The croc just seemed to have a big speech bubble coming from it saying - “yeah ive been here since dinosaurs - reckon im getting in that” - the story goes that eventually the Council did what they should have done in the first place - deal with the kids. But I heard that eventually they caught the croc and it ended up in the Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat. But I’m not sure if that’s true or it it went to Hartley’s or somewhere else. Certainly the history of crocs in the north is controversial.
Shortly after leaving the Mowbray and I’m at Craiglie and scouring the parkland for an old friend of mine who often sits around there. A good sort. He, like me, likes a feed at the BP and the cheapest coffee in town at the Shell servo. But no sign. Shame, not seen him for a while. But I’d try again on my way out.
Returning to Port Douglas
Around the main roundabout and right towards Port Douglas I take a quick detour to IGA - the most affordable supermarket in town and also to quickly check out Wildlife Habitat from the outside.
The place is important to me as I worked there for a few months one wet season as a Wildlife Keeper. It’s an important regional wildlife sanctuary and educational centre for Far North Queensland’s native species - including Cassowary, Saltwater and Freshwater Crocs, snakes, as well as others species including koalas. Most are rescues - ending up here after being hit by cars, or other similar circumstances and the facility educates visitors and locals on living with these wonderful creatures and how to protect them. There are very few places anywhere in the world where you will get to come close to a Cassowary, Salt Water Croc and Koala in one place. The keepers here work really hard and I have a great deal of respect for the work they do. I learnt a huge amount in the short time I worked here and although I was always an animal/reptile lover and bird lover - working here really gave me new perspective and insights.
Riding down the Palm lined Davidson Street past the Sheraton Mirage Hotel felt strange. It was still early and I had flashbacks of driving the shuttle bus at that time of the morning picking up locals and taking them to work. I was also reflecting on some of the interesting facts I'd learnt when training to be a tour guide. Those majestic palm trees that line the main street heading down into Port Douglas are in fact Palm Oil trees. They originate from Africa - I forget exactly where. They were bought into the Daintree orignally and were they planted along Davidson St as part of the development of the Sheraton Mirage by Christopher Skaase. And it's interesting to note a few gaps in the almost perfect planting where they have been ripped up by locals in the past!
Town was very quiet as I turned down Mowbray Street to check out the new Port Douglas Splash Park built since I left. Walking through to the Port Douglas Surf Life Saving Club where I was a member and used to patrol on the beach was emotional. I was recalling swimming around the stinger nets removing logs and debris from the nets, ensuring they could hang free and do there job of keeping marine stingers out of the swimming area. We would grab coffee from Zanders Beach Cafe as we started our patrol in the morning and would always be bought a fantastic lunch by the Club at midday. Such a great community club. I miss it. I had a moment or two of reflection here in the bright morning sunlight.
What Changed — And What Didn’t
Port Douglas definitely felt a bit different for me this time. Maybe I’ve just moved on in life. I guess that’s norm, right? I rode round from the Surf Club along the Esplanade and onto Macrossan Street, slowly as there was no traffic, passing all my familiar old haunts - and parked up at the other end opposite The Court House Hotel to have look out over Sugar Wharf. Unfortunately as an amateur photograper I’d set my camera wrong and overexposed all my photos - but we’ve got to learn somewhere.
I used to sit on one of the benches in Anzac Park, looking out over Sugar Wharf and work on my laptop in around 2011 when I was with the Douglas Economic Development Group and later on the organising Committee for the 2013 Carnivale. Those beautiful big fig trees provide amazing shade from the wet season heat, with a shadowy tropical view out over Sugar Wharf.
I walked through from there to Rex Smeal Park where I would always come on Sundays to buy my local fruit and vegetables and then sit out under the palm trees in the morning sun. Rex Smeal Park is just one of those places were time slows. Relaxation is inevitable. Looking out over the water to Low Isles in the distance, recalling good times. This is a place that stays with me - even when I’ve been away for a while. And it’s somewhere I can come back to - to reset. I don’t have to dig any particular memory. The place is neutral. It doesn’t provide anything other than natural beauty - it’s for the mind to do the rest. Probably my favourite place in Port Douglas and top ten anywhere.
While it was still cool I walked up one side of Macrossan St and back down the other. Not like I hadn’t done it a million times and not like I care about shops. It was good to pass by the Central Hotel - my old local and see my old table, the last undercover table before the outside area - for those of us who sit there in the rains. And to see the plaque in memory of local old Kenny the ‘croc’. I remember like it was yesterday sitting sipping my pot and Kenny hobbling over to welcome me. That was when I really felt I belonged in Port Douglas - like I could be a 'local'.=
But at that time in the morning when there is no-one about, I can feel the natural charm of the place without being overwhelmed by people. There were some good quiz nights here back in the day. And next door in the Iron Bar- the old venue for Cane Toad racing - that was fun. A long time ago now.
Macrossan St isn’t really my thing, but it has its charm and I can deal with it when it’s not too busy. I enjoyed revisiting it and seeing that not too much has changed. It was good to come back. I walked back accross to get the bike via the Combined Club (Tin Shed) which used to be the locals favourite and still has the best view in town for a sunset beer. We used to sit here and watch the fishing boats come in in the early evening with a cold one. They've since built a new second floor to catering for the growing number of tourists.
On my way out of town I hammered it up to the Lookout for a quick picture - such a great view. There were a hand full of tourists at the top getting their pictures too. I waited patiently.
Then I headed out of town to the small local suburb helpfully known as Four Mile, where many locals drink at the Barrier Reef Tavern. I stopped in at the park there for a moment of reflection on the beach where I used to come most evening for sundowners.
Then I headed out. It was good to be back - but time to move forward.
Before I rode home I had two more stops to make. First I headed up to the foot of the 'Bump Track' - a well known track which heads up an eventually all the way over the range to the Tablelands. A track that I would also end up further up doing some offroad biking later on - see my off-road videos on the Black Mountain Road - thanks to the Far North Queensland Motorcycle Touring Club for some pointers and a tag along one afternoon.
The Bump Track was built on an existing route used by aboriginal people, making their journeys between coast and the cooler mountaineous regions. But it was also used during the various economic booms the area experienced, including during the Gold Rush, before there was a road between Port Douglas and Cairns. For me it was a really good hike with decent elevation that took me up to Mowbray Falls - a set of waterfalls that few people would go to because of the hike. I just liked the area at the the bottom, the bridge and creek. I stopped in to check it out and reflect for a few minutes.
Then, before heading home, I rode out to one of my favourite wet season cooling off spots. We don’t give these spots away, they are the last sanctuary of locals to go and get some peace during the busy tourist season - but I will break with tradition. It’s not like the internet hasn’t already revealed most anyway. Out in the Mowbray Valley, lies Spring Creek. I would come out here most days in the hottest weeks in February and March as it was the nearest and coolest place in town. There is also a great hike, following the creek up to Spring Creek Falls a few ks upstream along the creek bed. You can find it on the hiking app.
No responsible local should provide swim spots without noting that Saltwater crocs can and do inhabit all waterways in Far North Queensland. We just get to know through local knowledge, over time where they are and where they are not.. Me personally, I rely on knowledge from local Kuku Yalanji aboriginal people. If I see them in the known spots I tend to be happier - if not- after say a flood - I'm inclinded to stay away a while.
And while I’m on indigenous aboriginal people in the area. We are fortunate to have a thriving community, especially north of Port Douglas in Mossman and Cooya - and many excellent local tourist operators. This blog is in no way about promoting businesses but I make exception for indigenous businesses as these people deserve the upmost credit for getting to where they have. In my view aboriginal tourism is vital if we are to keep the knowledge these people hold alive for future generations and start educating our kids how utilise natural resources at a time when it’s pretty clear we could need them very soon.
The cool deep water at Spring Creek brings the core body temperature down a few notches. This spot hadn’t changed a bit. It’s a favourite of local white and aboriginal people but I had it completely to myself as usual in the morning and was able to reflect on my ride, and have a cool off before the ride home.
Riding the Captain Cook Highway — What to Expect
- Distance (~60km), varied road conditions depending on season
- Sealed roads, hair pin bends, amazing views, road works
- Best time to ride: early morning for low traffic and ease of stopping
- Key stops: Palm Cove, Rex Lookout, Ellis Beach, Hartleys Croc Adventures, Mowbray River
- Refreshments at Clifton Beach Services and Ellis Beach - no fuel between Clifton Beach and Craiglie.
Edward Phelps
