Daintree Village, Cow Bay and Diwan: the settlements along the corridor

Three small settlements on one road

The corridor has no towns on it. Daintree Village counts 147 residents, Cow Bay 309, and Wujal Wujal, well beyond the end of the sealed road, 363. Diwan is a handful of businesses spread along Cape Tribulation Road rather than a place with a centre.

Daintree Village lies upriver on the south bank, which means you reach it without using the cable ferry at all: it is on the same side of the water as Mossman and Port Douglas. Cow Bay and Diwan are north of the crossing, strung along the sealed road that climbs the Alexandra and Noah Ranges towards Cape Tribulation.

Vehicles reach the northern settlements only by cable ferry, which runs between 5am and midnight daily, Christmas Day included, with capacity of roughly 27 cars per trip. Between 9am and 4:30pm the right-hand lane is held for locals and some commercial traffic, which is one reason queues build through the middle of the day.

Daintree Village and its cafes, on the south bank

Daintree Village is the river cruise end of the corridor. Most cruise boats work from the southern bank, the village side, and the regional visitor site suggests fitting a cruise into your arrival or departure day rather than crossing the ferry twice to reach one. Birdwatching along the river and the slow country-road feel are the other reasons people make the turn.

Two licensed places to eat are listed in the village. Julaymba Restaurant at Daintree Eco Lodge opens daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which makes it the most flexible kitchen in the village. Croc Xpresso Cafe & Bar does breakfast and lunch, so treat it as a morning stop.

Stewart Creek Road, at the village, is one of the cassowary sighting areas named by the local community conservation group. Sightings cluster between 6 and 9am and again between 4 and 6pm, and they are more frequent through the October to April fruiting season. If a bird is on the road, Queensland's advice is to slow down and keep driving: do not stop the car to look, and never approach an adult or a chick.

Cow Bay and Diwan, north of the crossing

Ten kilometres of sealed road separate the northern ferry landing from Cow Bay, a settlement of 309 people. Food there runs on two timetables. The Rainforest Discovery Centre, on the corner of Cape Tribulation Road and Tulip Oak Road, serves through its opening hours of 9:00am to 5:00pm every day except Christmas Day, with last entry at 4:00pm. Crocs Cafe at Daintree Crocodylus does breakfast between 8:00 and 9:30am and dinner from 5:30 to 7pm, with the licensed bar open until 10pm, and nothing in the middle of the day.

Diwan, 14 km north of the ferry, is where you deal with fuel. Daintree Rainforest Village has diesel and unleaded, a supermarket, a laundry and snack foods from 7am to 6pm. The licensed Daintree Siesta Restaurant serves lunch and dinner and recommends booking, which is sound advice for a kitchen this far up a road with patchy phone coverage.

The Daintree Ice Cream Company is signposted on the left 14 km north of the ferry, at 1819R Cape Tribulation Road, and opens 9:00am to 5:00pm daily apart from Christmas Day. There is one thing on the menu: a cup of four scoops, each a different tropical flavour, with the flavours changing day to day according to what is ripening on the 22-acre farm. The orchard holds more than 15 species of rare and exotic fruit trees and there is a self-guided walk through it. Carry cash, which the farm itself advises, because reception here is limited and card or EFTPOS payments can be unreliable in bad weather.

Daintree Tea has been going since 1978 and sells loose leaf black tea, tea bags and honey from a roadside farmgate stall at Lot 12 Cape Tribulation Road, Diwan. No opening hours are published for the stall, so take it as a stop you make when you find it open. The same locally grown tea turns up in the morning tea on the small-group day from Port Douglas.

Opening hours along the road

From Port Douglas the ferry is roughly 45 minutes away and from Cairns about two hours; from the northern landing it is another 45 minutes or so to Cape Tribulation, with Cow Bay at 10 km and Diwan at 14 km on the way. The hours matter more than the distances.

The ice cream farm and the Discovery Centre both shut at 5pm, and the Cow Bay cafe at Daintree Crocodylus has closed its breakfast window by 9:30am. South of the river, the village kitchens serve breakfast and dinner without a crossing. On the small-group day from Port Douglas, morning tea and lunch are already part of the itinerary.

Hours below are the ones published by the businesses and the regional visitor listings. Check them on the day, since small kitchens at this end of the road change their trading.

Reception, cash and the wet season

Patchy phone coverage is the practical consequence of being north of the river. The official visitor advice is to have maps and booking confirmations downloaded before the crossing. Keep some cash on you for the small places.

Rain changes how the wet months feel rather than whether the road is usable. Roughly November to May is the green season, when 75 to 90 per cent of the yearly rain arrives in a region that averages about 3,000 mm, and December to April is the quiet low stretch for the businesses along here. The published hours are the best reference through the year, and a restaurant that recommends bookings in the dry months is worth booking in February as well.

Services thin out quickly past Cow Bay. Diwan is the last fuel, supermarket and laundry before Cape Tribulation, where the sealed road ends, and beyond that the Cape Tribulation to Bloomfield Road has creek crossings, admits 4WD only and is never suitable for towing. Wujal Wujal and its 363 residents sit past that point, which is where an ordinary car's version of the corridor stops.

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