Daintree and Cape Tribulation

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Hello,

This morning I left Cairns again, this time to go to see more rainforest. We drove north along the coast to Mossman Gorge. From the car park we walked along the plastic boardwalk (recycled, but still a bit of an unsightly gash through the rainforest. Apparently there are plans to do more to make it wheelchair accessible. Rainforest for all!) through some very nice scenery. The gorge was pretty enough and I started to take a lot of pictures of trees and water and I could see a few fish (jungle perch, or flagtails) in the clear water.

After that there was a 20 minute stop at a tiny wildlife park with various parrots and some crocodiles and wallabies. I might just be getting jaded by now, but I've seen all of the above in better, more natural surroundings by now so it didn't impress me much. Maybe if I had only just arrived in Australia I would have been more impressed. They did have a cassowary (sort of an emu, but with a big blue crest) though.

Next stop- Daintree rainforest. here we had a meander over the boardwalks through more trees (so many photos of trees by now) and the mangrove. The guide (the first indigenous one I've had) was a wealth of information about the various plants. I do, however, have the suspicion he mis-identified a fish we saw in the mangrove forest- he said it was an archer fish but I know what they look like, and it's not like that.

Next up came a bit of a surprise- I thought this was a tour for two days. Not so. We just got left at an accommodation at Cape Tribulation at midday and left to amuse ourselves for the rest of the day (and at our own expense). Weirdly, the group has also been split up, there are only two of us (from a group of ten, with three of them admittedly on a day trip) staying at my place. Also I'm not sure how or why they allocated who where. My Lonely Planet dubs where I am as a party place, so I guess I must have more of a party name than most of the others! I'm not massively impressed by all this, since it wasn't clear to me that it was organised in this fashion- the itinerary isn't very well written.

I suppose it's not such a bad thing to have a bit of independence though, so me and the other guy just went on a couple of hours long walk, mostly along Cape Tribulation Beach. One thing that has mollified me a bit regarding the lack of tour in the tour is that at least the area is really scenic. Oddly I have been bitten less here as well, and it's even the coolest (temperature of course) place I have been to since arriving in Australia.

Well I just got back from the walk and pottering about until dinner and the evening. Maybe I'll go in the pool. Or I just saw a poster for a night walk through the jungle. Hmm... I'll ask about that...

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Photos

Me and Mossman Gorge
Very different to the Kakadu Gorges

Fish!
Flagtails, I think.

Basket ferns
A kind of epiphyte- plants which grow on other plants