Where the rainforest meets the reef

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Headed out at 7 am up to Cape Tribulation, about 2.5 hours north of Cairns.... Stopped along the way to admire the coast and see the ultra exclusive island Bill Gates stays at right off the mainland. Also listened in fascination and horror to stories/facts about the box jellyfish and the other extremely poisonous type found in Queensland of which I forget the name. These things are of course completely transparent and can be as small as a thumbnail but if you are stung you will probably die within 15 minutes unless you can get to a hospital in under that amount of time and even then, you'll probably be paralyzed...one guy's friend got stung last year and was extremely lucky in that he survived, but spent seven months in the hospital. Needless to say, you don't get in the water right on the coast much of anywhere in northern Queensland during jellyfish season (summer) because they are usually found very close to the beach. Some people do but you're supposed to wear a stinger suit. I said screw that; I can live with not getting in the water up at Cape Trib because I am not ready to have a creature the size of a thumbnail take me out quite yet.

Stopped in a cute town called Port Douglas and then headed further north for a hike in the Daintree National Rainforest and a swim in Mossman Gorge. Then took a boat down the river looking for crocodiles, of which we saw several. We continued onward to Cape Tribulation and checked into the jungle-ish hostel (but not too primative, AC in the rooms, yay!). I walked to the beach but there isn't much else to do there, so had dinner and sat around to chat with everyone. By the end of the night, two 50-ish men had tried to pick me up and I had invitations to a waterfall the next day as well as out for New Year's. Riiiiiiiight....why is it that the men who chat me up are more than 2x my age as well as all around suspicious? I had had enough of that nonsense and called it a night pretty early.

The next day I went kayaking in the morning. I didn't want to pay the money to go scuba dive the reef again since it's so expensive but I thought at least I'd be out there doing this and it's something active. It was really good and a great way to see the coast. I must be getting very out of shape though; by the end of it my arms were so tired! Also ate fresh coconut, papaya, and passionfruit when we were done kayaking, which was all soooooo good. The rest of the day was spent doing not much since there's not much to do. Did a little hiking and wrote some postcards, and the bus came to get us at 4:30 for the trip back to Cairns....

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Comments

[Dad]

I read somewhere that crocodiles only attack people wearing cowboy hats.