Cape Tribulation, jewel of the east coast

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The only way to access Cape Tribulation is via an old car ferry from Daintree which takes approx 10 cars at a time across the river. After crossing we drive up 30km through the midst of the rainforest, a canopy of trees across the road as we drive along the winding and sometimes scary road. We had planned to stay at Noahs campsite but we soon find out when we get there that you have to pre register by phone/internet....and there’s no phone signal. After driving another 7km to the local store we were told not to bother phoning as the campsite is always fully booked - need to give at least 3 days notice. Our only option was to book into the PK Jungle Village park for the night which is the MAIN backpacker joint. Once again loads of young kids being idiots and as if to prove the point when we are cooking dinner in the campers kitchen a completely naked and very drunk man comes in and starts jumping around-thank god we have our campervan!!
At the back of PK’s there is a mangrove swamp with a boardwalk leading to Myall beach. The beach was beautiful and it was strange to see the beach with the rainforest right next to it. We walked along the beach round to Cape Tribulation beach which was just as stunning as Myall beach and had the Kulki lookout point, allowing you to look over the rainforest and down onto the beautiful coastline which had mangroves galore growing out onto the beach.
After moving over to The Jungle Lodge campsite we head down to the Marrdja boardwalk which is a leisurely 1-2km walking track through the mangroves of this area. Its a quiet and cool walk as the forest trees and palms shade the boardwalk, although there are too many midges around for our liking! After reaching the end of the walk we drive further south to the Fan Palm Cafe boardwalk. As we park up we notice the cafe is closed but the boardwalk is still open so we pay our $3 entry fee and head in. Its soon obvious that we are the first in as we keep walking through spiders webs. Its all very creepy and spooky and we walk through very quickly as we don't want to meet anything that we shouldn't here (the area has many cassawaries) Our final visist of the day is to the Daintree ice cream company which specialises in very weird flavours- we get 4 mini scoops of the day which are absolutely delicious. After returning to the campsite and cooking dinner in the campers kitchen (have to help some girls make their popcorn as they have no idea how to do it!) we chill out at the front of the park.

The following morning we head out to do jungle surfing- (flying through the forest treetops on zip wires) We get great views over the treetops, out towards the great barrier reef and, although a bit scary at first we actually have a really good time. John, who is not a fan of heights copes really well and even ends up going upside down on one of the zipwires-not for too long though!! We spend the afternoon on another idyllic beach (Thornton beach) before heading to the Alexandra range lookout point where we get fantastic views of the valley below and the Daintree coastline, including Port Douglas and Snapper Island.

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Photos

Myall Beach
Paradise!