Blogs from Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 10

Early start today as we had to meet our bus at 7:15. After picking up the rest of our tour group we headed towards Mossman gorge. You can choose to swim or walk but as the water was cold and we were getting back on the bus we decided to walk around (we saw the biggest lizard that we have seen in australia yet). Next stop was Daintree Wildlife Sanctuary. This was cool as there lots of animals to see, the best were a blind joey which was very tame and was happy to be cuddled and petted, and the crocs (although we still hope to see one in the wild). It was really funny as one of the lads in our group was trying to get the croc to move by waggling a stick in ... read more

Early Sunday morning we boarded a small bus for Cape Tribulation, about 4 hours north of Cairns. The weather looked quite gloomy for the first time. I was really excited to be going up into the “tropical north,” to see the magical rainforests I had been dreaming about. The trip included some minor commentary from our bus driver, stops in the Daintree National Park (a World Heritage site), and 2 nights accommodation at PK’s Jungle Village. We took a small boat up the Daintree River, where crocodiles are often spotted, but the river was too high for us to see any this time. The river is wide and muddy and is flanked by thick vegetation. We saw a couple of tree snakes and some beautiful blue kingfishers. Before we got up to the Cape, our guide ... read more

Cape Tribulation… Don and I decided to take a day trip up to Cape Tribulation, north of Cairns. Our first stop was a cruise on the Daintree River looking for crocodiles in the wild. Truly amazing. We saw two big adult crocs and a wee one. The adults were massive about ten feet in length, the first one sat in the water with his nose poking out, we could see some of his body but he was mostly submersed. The boat was so close, I felt as if I could touch him, although, it probably wouldn‘t be the best idea. The second one was a smaller croc, about eighteen months old, hiding in the reeds and mangroves. They didn’t seem at all fazed by our presence, I don’t know if they are used to the cruises ... read more

Well, from Bungalow Bay we took a bus to a ferry, a ferry to a cab, a cab to the train and a train to Cairns! We didn't actually stay in Cairns for very long as the next day we headed to Port Douglas (a holiday town about an hours drive north of Cairns). Port Douglas is very small...we didn't do a lot there. There is a very good beach, four miles long and fringed with palm trees! Unfortunately though the weather turned overcast so we didn't spend much time on the beach and we didn't go out to the reef again as the wind had picked up, making for slightly rougher waters with reduced visibility. After a couple of days in Port Douglas we took a day trip to Kuranda, a little town to the ... read more

My last post didn't really do Cape Tribulation justice, so here is a new, I-am-no-longer-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-with-expensive-internet one! Cape Trib is the most beautiful place I have been, in fact it must be the most beautiful place in the world because it is the only place where 2 World Heritage sites meet and share a border- the Daintree Rainforest (thought to be the oldest rainforest in the world) and the Great Barrier Reef. It was named by Captain Cook, because this was where his boat hit the reef and all of his "trials and tribulations" began. The cape itself is covered in rainforest and most people who go to Cape Trib don't even go there. The township is basically a hostel, a small grocery store and a pharmacy on one side of the road, and a campsite and ... read more