Cape Tribulation

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So I didn't finish telling what happened at Magnetic Island! The place has an abundance of Eucalyptus trees, and those who have been paying attention to the story knows that it was a stray leaf from this tree, found in New Zealand, that led us to Oz in the first place.

Nearing the end of our trip Down Under, and still no nearer to finding the famous Golden Carrot, we were getting nervous, but some conveniently helpful locals informed us that the Carrot had appeared on the island many years before. We showed them the leaf we'd found, and we were led to the exact tree it had come from (these locals are very knowledgeable!).

On the tree were some mysterious carvings, which the locals translated for us. Apparently the Carrot, after having been stolen from NZ, was sold on to an east-asian looking guy, who wore a small buddha round his neck. This was our only clue, so we thought our best bet was to split up after Australia, to cover more ground. I volunteered to go to Thailand, while Eleni has decided to get some help from friends in Japan.....



We spent our last week in Cairns. As we had a free weekend, and wanted to get away from cloudy Cairns (yes the weather is worse here than home), we set off north on a tour to Cape Tribulation, one of the most bio-diverse rainforests of the world.

The tour consisted of a cruise up Daintree river, where we got to see some cool crocodiles, a rainforest walk (probably the best I've ever done), a night in Cape Tribulation, exotic fruit tasting, and visits to Mossman Gorge and Port Douglas.

First, some cool facts about the crocs:

- Just like we kill crocodiles for sport, they do the same to humans and cattle - they can't actually eat either because we're too big

- They are born with inherent memories - they don't have to be taught anything by their parents, they already know how to hunt and kill

- They have homing-beacons! One crocodile travelled 500km in 4 days back to his home after he was removed from it, tagged, and released elsewhere

- The power in the jaws of a crocodile is equivalent to 2 family cars falling on you

- The longest recorded crocodile was over 9m long and weighed more than our 25 seater bus and trailer combined


During the rainforest walk we came across a plant that if you chew on one leaf, it leads to paralysis of the brain. There was also some toxic fruit, but aboriginals spent thousands of years using trial and error until they discovered that you could eat it! First you washed it in water, put it in a bag with holes in, soaked it in the river for 3 days and then boiled it. Not sure how many people's lives were sacrificed for that, I hope it tastes good.

The exotic fruit tasting was also quite fun. We got to try a 'lemon meringue pie' fruit and what can only be described as a 'fruit salad' of fruits - tangy, juicy, chewy, um it had everything! My favourite was mangosteen and Eric's was pommelo. The bread fruit was bland, even though it was cooked in cajun spices. It's a substitute for potatoes in some cultures, but give me potatoes any day! One fruit, called 'miracle fruit', doesn't taste great, but apparently it enables you to eat anything sour, making lemons taste like oranges.

After that we had a trip to a gorge and Port Douglas, but we spent most of the time in the latter at the supermarket shopping for fajitas and Thai red curry! No I haven't changed 😊

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Photos

Cool tree!
This used to be a small vine wrapped around a bigger tree, but as it grew thicker it strangled the host tree and eventually killed it off. It's hollow inside as it continues to grow.

Dangerous leaves
Chewing on one leaf can paralyse your brain!