Cairns and Cape Tribulation

Hi,

Well while sunbathing by the pool and the lagoon last week I eventually decided my plans for the rest of my travels. Will post these in a separate post later!!

Last week I spent a lot of time sunbathing and made a number of trips to the night markets. Even considered buying a didgeridoo to send home but thankfully came to my senses - where on earth would I store it!?!

On Friday night I met Richard (we did Business together at uni) off the bus and introduced him to the lovely Gilligan's hostel. We then headed to the Night Markets and had a Chinese meal there.

On Saturday we went on a trip up to Cape Tribulation, the rainforest north of Cairns. We stopped at numerous places on the way and unfortunately I cannot remember the names of them all!! Our first stop was for a morning swim in Mossman Gorge:

It was lovely and refreshing. We were able to let the current float us down the river for a bit as well.

Our next stop was at the sanctuary where we saw crocodiles, pythons and Cassowary birds.

After crossing the Daintree River on the ferry, the Alexander Range Lookout was the next place to stretch our legs. From here we could see the mouth of the Dantree River:

Throughout the rainforest there are signs warning drivers about Cassowary birds and also speed bumps. However the sign in the photo below has been modified by someone:

Our final stop before being dropped off at our accommodation for the night was a boardwalk around the rainforest. Here we saw a number of different vegetation. The strangest one was a tree which had started to grow half way up another tree and therefore it's roots had been wrapped around the tree from which it had grown on. That tree then died and has left the following root structure: Richard and I stayed at PK's Jungle Village for the night. During the afternoon we played volleyball in the pool with a number of others who we met in the bar later that evening for some games of cards.

On Sunday we walked up to a lookout to see Daintree Beach I think it was.It was such a hot walk up there that we decided the next best place to go was for a swim in a fresh water waterhole, so we headed to Mason's Swimhole. It was lovely and refreshing.

We then got picked up by our tour guide again and went on a cruise of along the Daintree River looking for crocodiles. We were really lucky and saw a little 1 yr old croc and also one about 2-3 years old. Try and spot one amongst these logs:

We also saw a frog which had decided to make the boat it's new home!

We also stopped at the Daintree Ice-Cream shop for an ice-cream before being dropped off at Port Douglas.