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Published: September 24th 2008
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Amazing cape, I know I am always starting my trip blogs the same but those are the days when we have to get up extra early. Here goes…
Another early start as the little tour bus picked us up for our discovery of Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest National park. We were in for an exciting time with our very knowledgeable tour guide as we headed out of Cairns up past the sugar cane fields and little train lines. Our first stop was Mossman Gorge after we had been on a little wonder and photo ops we were back on the bus again and continued on to a wildlife park.
The park was a small family owned show with mainly birds but also large croc enclosures. Once we had seen their cassowary, a large rainforest bird that has the power to disembowel a human on attack, it was off to see their crocs. We all stood around a very uninviting muddy pool quite unimpressed then the guide stuck a stick through the fence and splashed the water and out jumped a massive four meter salty croc. Yes we all jumped! It was a very impressive site as the
big teeth came snapping out of the water to catch what had disturbed the surface.
They also had a few smaller crocodiles that were being farmed, soon to be turned in to jewellery and handbags, a little sad but considering that in the wild most of them would have already been eaten by their parents or older siblings at least they were having an opportunity of a bit of a life. It’s a hard life being a croc only one percent makes adulthood. We had a spot to eat and we were soon crossing the Daintree River on the ferry and leaving civilisation, well mobile reception anyway. In case we sank there where big floats on the side to hold onto, a little pointless however as the river is home to many crocodiles!
The wet tropical rainforest is a world heritage site and the oldest living rainforest in the world, out doing the Amazon by a few million years. Which takes our total to three world heritage areas and Cape Tribulation is extra special as it marks the area where the barrier reef meets the rainforest. Surprisingly it has only relatively been recognised as such and there was
a big fight over the land in the eighties to protect it from the logging companies.
The area is so dangerous there are so many things that want your blood on land and in the water and even the plants have it in for you. The wet tropical rainforests are home to seven out of eight of the worlds deadliest snakes and most of the worlds most dangerous spiders. Glossy toxic berries and nasty stinging plants lie in wait for the unprepared trekker too. But as long as we were careful and respected the place we should come to no harm.
The whole place was breathtakingly beautiful as we walked through the rainforest and out through the mangroves to the long white sandy beaches and soft crashing surf with tips of the reef in the distance.
We soon found our bearings around our hostel, small dorm rooms in bungalow buildings nestled in the forest with two pools and a comfy television lounge for the important things in life.
On the second day we had a leisurely start and a long walk down the beach, wildlife spotting as we went and it paid off with a beautiful
Lace Monitor lizard. We had a horse riding trip in the afternoon and once we had been orientated and introduced to our horses we were soon off. Mine was called Thunder, very gladiatorish, and Alice had Chief, he was very antisocial to the other horses and we had to give him a lot of space. We had a nice walk with them and then had a trot and a canter till we reached the beach, I didn’t think it could look better but up on horse back the area was just stunning. Unfortunately the time just ran away from us and it was soon back to the paddock and a sad fair well to our equestrian friends.
That evening we had to do some washing, now before you skip to the next paragraph, the washing machines were at the opposite end of the park. The rainforest got very dark at night and quite noisy with all the nocturnal animals coming out to play. The sky was beautifully clear and the stars shone brightly as frogs and geckos ran across the path in front and behind us, it really was a gauntlet of nerves each time we had to cross
at alexander look out
at the top of the rainforest the park.
The bus came back for us on the Wednesday and we soon found ourselves leaving the rainforest but we had one more stop for some Crocodile watching down the Daintree River. They were quite hard to spot in the mangroves but when we did we were not disappointed, such an impressive animal. Alice spent the whole trip petrified that she would be lunch and was very relieved when we got back to the dry land and away from the water.
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