A Local’s Stay at Silky Oaks Lodge in the Daintree Rainforest

Living in Port Douglas, we’re lucky enough to have some of Far North Queensland’s most extraordinary places practically on our doorstep.

The Great Barrier Reef is one direction. The Daintree Rainforest and Mossman Gorge are the other.

Sometimes, though, when somewhere is so close to home, you forget to experience it the way a visitor would.

So when Dave and I had the rare opportunity for a couple of nights away without the kids, we decided not to go far at all. Instead, we checked into Silky Oaks Lodge, tucked away in the rainforest on the banks of the Mossman River.

It was only a short drive from home, but within about five minutes of arriving, it felt like we’d gone considerably further.

Our agenda was deliberately simple: eat well, sleep in, have a massage or two, explore the rainforest and otherwise do as little as possible.

Bliss.

Silky Oaks Lodge and the Mossman River

For us, the biggest drawcard of Silky Oaks Lodge is its setting.

The lodge sits amongst dense tropical rainforest beside the Mossman River, with walking trails winding through the property and down towards the water.

This is a very different side of Far North Queensland to the one most people associate with Port Douglas.

There are no palm-lined beaches or views across the Coral Sea. Instead, enormous granite boulders break up clear freshwater, rainforest presses in from both sides and the canopy turns almost every shade of green imaginable.

We spent hours wandering slowly along the river, stopping whenever something caught our eye.

Freshwater turtles scurried between the rocks beneath us. Reflections shifted across the pools as the light moved through the trees. Across the river, kids from the local Mossman Gorge community were diving into the deeper water looking for fish, their colourful artworks brightening some of the huge granite boulders along the bank.

It’s one of those places where there is constantly something to look at without feeling as though you need to be doing anything at all.

And that suited us perfectly.

Experiencing the Daintree at a slower pace

A lot of people visit the Daintree Rainforest and Mossman Gorge as a day trip from Port Douglas or Cairns.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

But staying within the rainforest changes the pace completely.

Rather than trying to fit viewpoints, walking tracks and swimming spots into an itinerary, we could simply wander when we felt like it. There was no real destination and no rush to get back to the car.

That slower pace is probably what stayed with us most.

We spend a lot of time outdoors as a family, but anyone with small children will know that even a relaxing day in nature generally involves snacks, shoes, negotiations, toilet stops and carrying considerably more equipment than seems reasonable.

This time there was none of that.

There was a hammock on our villa deck that got a serious workout, long meals that somebody else cooked, cocktails made with native and local ingredients and the rare luxury of waking up naturally.

We had massages, wandered beside the river and spent a great deal of time doing absolutely nothing.

Highly underrated.

Rainforest inspiration along the Mossman River

Naturally, Dave also had his camera with him.

It’s very difficult for either of us to spend time somewhere like this without eventually looking at it through the lens of our work.

The reef is normally where Dave’s photography and my paintings overlap most obviously. We’ve spent years travelling the East Coast photographing turtles, marine life, islands and the shifting colours of the Coral Sea.

The rainforest is different.

Everything feels heavier and more enclosed. Instead of vast expanses of blue, you have layers of deep green broken by clear water, dark rocks and sudden flashes of light.

Dave came home with some beautiful photographs from the Mossman River and I came home looking at a familiar landscape a little differently. 

The reflections in the water were particularly interesting; greens blending into blues, distorted shapes moving across the surface and sunlight illuminating sections of the river while everything around them remained dark.

They’re the kinds of details that tend to linger.

Often, a new painting doesn't start with a fully formed idea. It begins with a colour combination, a photograph, a particular patch of light or simply a feeling from somewhere we’ve been.

The Mossman River gave me plenty of those.

Why the Daintree still surprises us

After living in Far North Queensland for so long, weekends like this are also a useful reminder of why people travel from all over the world to visit this region.

We talk about the Daintree Rainforest, Mossman Gorge and Great Barrier Reef so often that there is a danger of becoming a little too accustomed to having them nearby.

Then you find yourself sitting beside a crystal-clear river surrounded by enormous rainforest trees and moss-covered granite boulders, and you remember that there really aren’t many places like this.

The Daintree forms part of Queensland’s World Heritage-listed Wet Tropics, a landscape recognised for both its extraordinary biodiversity and its long evolutionary history.

But you don’t need to understand any of that to appreciate it.

Sometimes it’s enough just to sit quietly beside the river.

Is Silky Oaks Lodge worth staying at?

Silky Oaks Lodge is very much a luxury stay, and the price reflects that.

It isn’t somewhere we’d casually check into for every free weekend.

But it’s also one of those places where you can understand what you’re paying for.

For us, the luxury wasn’t really about anything flashy. It was having beautiful food without needing to go anywhere for it. Walking out the door and immediately being surrounded by rainforest. Having the Mossman River below us. Being able to spend an afternoon reading in a hammock and not feeling there was somewhere else we should be.

Most of all, it was the quiet.

For a couple of days, the outside world felt remarkably far away.

A rainforest stay near Port Douglas

If you’re visiting Port Douglas or the Daintree and want to experience the rainforest without rushing through it, Silky Oaks Lodge offers a very different kind of Far North Queensland stay.

Come for the Mossman River.

Walk slowly.

Spend some time looking at the way the rainforest changes in different light.

Have a long lunch. Book the massage. Use the hammock.

And leave a little room in your itinerary for doing absolutely nothing.

We spend much of our lives drawing inspiration from the reef, rainforest and landscapes surrounding Port Douglas. Every now and then, it’s nice to experience them simply for ourselves.

Although, inevitably, a few ideas always seem to follow us home.