Day 31: Mossman Gorge and the Daintree Rainforest‏

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We headed up North of Port Douglas to a town called Mossman - driving through we both turned to each other and said 'it looks very American'. The houses were wooden bungalow types, the shops were all something-mart and there were signs for 'real estate'. We carried on to the gorge and decided to start with the short rainforest trek. Two kilometres later and we were looking pretty sweaty so decided to head back toward the swimming hole. Here is the only place in the region where the water is cold and hence refreshing on a hot summers day. I took a fair bit of coaxing into the freezing waters but it did feel refreshing once in!

Bailey's bit:

While playing in the gorge we saw a bird, Cat thought it was a Carraway (An Australian indigenous bird that stands about 4 foot tall) this bird was no taller than a foot and looked more like a turkey. On the drive back we stopped off at Ellis beach, this quiet beach had perfect clean sands, cockatoos in the trees and relatively clear waters which were almost as warm as a bath. The only downside is the presence of jellyfish so swimming is confined to a stinger net. Finally the hostel we booked into offered a 'free' dinner at a local saloon. Turns out its only 'free' if you buy a drink a fairly expensive drink and then the food was only slightly above poor, lesson learned for tomorrow night!

Daily mileage: am 4 was going to try and see if 4-mile beach was actually 4 miles but the tide was in so only soft sand which was hard going and not good on the ankles. pm: 3 did a quick fartlek on the beach front at 9:30pm still warm enough to break a full sweat!

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