Day 97: Cairns to Cape Tribulation, Australia

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Day 97: Thursday, March 4th, 2010.
Cairns to Cape Tribulation, Australia.

So, today I met up with the others who were doing the Cape Tribulation part of this trip. There were only 8 of us total: Myself, Emily (Canada), Harley (England), Aoifa (Ireland), Christy (Australia), Cam (Australia), Mark (Australia) and Ed (England). Our tour guide is Shaz (Australia) and we're going to have a driver named Richard (New Zealand) for the Cape Tribulation portion but a different one for the rest of the journey.

Along the way to Cape Tribulation we stopped and took pictures of various coves and I can't remember their names/stories. One was where Steve Irwin met his untimely death- not a cheerful topic, especially to Australians. We stopped at Port Douglas and saw the cutest church, St. Mary's by the Sea, where there is a 2 year waiting list. Great location, cute church. Port Douglas is "the" town to go to and I guess many celebrities frequent it. We stopped and swam in a river (fresh water so that crocodiles wouldn't kill us) at Mossman Gorge which is part of the Daintree Rainforest.

We stopped at an ice cream stand for some fresh fruit ice cream. For 5 bucks you get 4 small scoops and you have no choice on the flavors, they only have 4 different ones a day. So, I had Passion Fruit, Macadamia Nut, Wattleseed, and Jakfruit. Liked them all, passion fruit was a bit bitter for my taste though. Saw some interesting plants there, one of which was a type of "bucket" plant that would capture rain water and then trap/eat whatever critter went to get the water. Many nasty plants and critters up here. One (non nasty) critter they have is a Cassowary which is the 3rd largest bird in Australia (with Ostrich being first followed by Emu). These birds look like a Ostrich and a Peacock got it on... in my humble opinion. We did see one crossing the road but I was slow with the camera and Harley was kind enough to send me one of her shots. Still, click on the link to see some close up pics of this bird- it's quite amazing. And, unfortunately, it falls prey to cars so someone took the liberty of creating some "Beware of Cassowary" signs but embellishing on a "hump ahead" sign.

We got to our lodge, the Ferntree Rianforest Lodge, and I shared a room with Christie. Dinner was at the hotel that night and was nice.

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Photos

Swimming at Mossman Gorge.
At least I think that was the name...

Only 15373 km to NYC!
That's 9552 miles (had to Google it!)

Pretty beach
Yeah, I don't remember where.

St. Mary's by the Sea
Port Douglas

Comments

[Chris]

You got trapped by a water bucket plant?
I love Cassowaries. They taste just like chicken!