4WD Safaris

From Melbourne you can follow the sealed roads 4000km. up the coast but it finishes at Cape Tribulation.

For the adventurous travelers wanting to explore the wilderness even further north than Cape Tribulation there are two tour operators that run four wheel drive safaris, ranging from half day tours to Bloomfield Falls to full day tours to historic Cooktown via the (in)famous Bloomfield Track.

This track became very well known in 1983 after it hit the news headlines when council bulldozers pushed the track through the Daintree Rainforest in spite of strong protests by greenies who even dug themselves in the ground and chained themselves to trees.

The tours runs through rugged terrain and several creek crossings to the Bloomfield River, the Aboriginal settlement of Wujal Wujal, Bloomfield, Cedar Bay National Park, Rossville and Helensvale and past Black Mountain on the way to Cooktown.

D’Arcy of the Daintree Tours runs half day tours to Wujal Wujal and the beautiful Bloomfield Falls at $119 adult / $70 for children, and also full day tours to Cooktown for $219/130.

This tour will travel with a minimum of only two passengers so you may end up with a very personalized service, and there is a usual maximum of 5 passengers to Cooktown and 6 to Wujal.

The tour travels in a very comfortable vehicle, with the latest in satphone technology which enables communications all the way along the Bloomfield Track where mobile phones do not work. This is a classic 4WD tour through beautiful creeks along the Bloomfield Track, with lots of sightseeing stops along the way such as the Strangler Fig, Emmagen Creek, Donovan’s Point Lookout and Woobadda Creek, plus plants and wildlife.
On the way to the Falls, the new Wujal Wujal Arts Centre is open Tuesdays to Thursdays, with extra days in peak season. On most days, an Indigenous cultural tour can be arranged.

Half-day tour available twice daily from Cape Tribulation.

For those wanting an even bigger adventure there is a multi-featured tour exploring the Bloomfield Track and Cooktown, including the Wujal Wujal Falls, it takes you further up the Track past Wujal Wujal towards Cooktown.

The Lion’s Den Hotel, Black Mountain, Grassy Hill and little bays around Cooktown are some of the featured stops on the way. The tour includes free entry to the James Cook Museum and by special arrangement you could also visit the spectacular Archer Point.

At times the crossing of the Bloomfield river can add to the adventure, in February 2011 it washed away, a passenger ferry was the only way to cross for a few months until council constructed this temporary causeway in May 2011.