Once again it’s been so long since I last wrote that I can barley remember what I have been up to! I think I left this blog before I went to Cape Tribulation, which was about a month ago. So here is a brief overview of our organised three day excursion.

Our first stop was a boat cruise along the Daintree river. The river is a natural crocodile habitat, with murky water and mangroves along the banks, promising to be a croc spotting extravaganza. But was more of a gentle cruise combined with peering through bushes to try and sport small very well camouflaged crocs. In the end we only caught a glimpse of one croc, he was too small to be intimidating and basking in the sun away from the banks of the river.

From there we were driven straight to our accommodation in Cape Tribulation – so called because Captain Cook was having a bad time when his discovered this part of the Aussie coast! It was some of the nicest accommodation so far with clean four bed cabins in the rainforest. After dumping our bags and changing our clothes we headed for the nearest croc safe swimming spot and spent the afternoon frolicking in the water, taking, as usual, endless photographs.

The next morning we took a leisurely stroll to the golden sands of Cape Tribulation beach. The beach was beautiful and we spent some time relaxing in the sun before seeking out some shade. Sitting at a picnic table reading Kat pointed to the bushes that were rustling as a large Goanna (lizard) came running out of the forest scavenging for food at the picnic tables around us. We’d soon jumped onto the tables and were watching a large dinosaur like creature running around beneath us!! It was an amazing sight. The lizard was easily a meter long and not phased at all by the amount of people now clamouring to take its picture. Soon another larger Goanna appeared chased the first one away and preceded to take his place in the limelight.

Around lunch time we picked up and driven to the hostel where we were to spent our second night in the rainforest. The rooms here were more basic but we were much deeper in the rain forest. There was nothing nearby apart from some beaches which is where we spent the afternoon. Kat, Naomi and I lazed on a beach called Cow Bay whilst Emily, Katy and Jonny went swimming. They enjoyed themselves splashing about in the rough waves. A few days later I picked up a newspaper and read that and man had been bitten on the head by a crocodile whilst swimming in the exact same bay – luckily the guy survived, but his injuries looked pretty horrific – I’m very glad I didn’t go in!

The following morning we did a canopy walk through the rain forest. I’d heard this was amazing but wasn’t desperately enamoured. It would have been very good if I’d been interested in all the different trees and plants but just to wonder around it really wasn’t that interesting – although we soon found some things to entertain ourselves with!!

Afterwards we were picked up and began the drive back to Cairns. Along the way we stopped briefly in Port Douglas, a slightly upmarket resort town and at Mossman George – a beautiful spot for swimming had it not been raining.

We arrived back in Cairns in need of a rest before taking Jonny to the airport the next day and picking up our rental car and home for the next forty odd days!

After picking up our car we decided to begin our driving/camping adventure by heading back to the far North for a sport of site seeing and real Crocodile watching. We drove up to Port Douglas via Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures. Here we saw a man hand feed a croc as it lunged out of the water after the chicken he was brandishing and went on a boat cruise round a croc infested lagoon watching them jump for chickens hanging over the side of the boat – anyone would think they were dogs!

The following day Naomi, Emily and I spent the morning being educated about how the aboriginals lived off the forest during a two hour guided walk through the forest with an aboriginal guide. He showed us some amazing things including a nut that burned like a candle and a tree that produces sap that makes you itch, the aboriginals used to use this sap to coat their battle weapons.

There were many other interesting things along the way but I really don’t have time to write about them all now including being ‘healed’ by an aboriginal healer – it didn’t work!!!!!!! But for now it’s back to reality for me and hopefully I’ll get to a computer again soon.

* Posted by j150vsc on 08/11/2007.