Crocodile spotting

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After heading to Port Douglas markets in the morning and filling up on cake we headed out to Mossman Gorge. We had a lovely walk in the rainforest, unfortunately we didn't see much wildlife, but we did see a few birds, including a bush turkey who Alex chased out of the bushes in the hope that I'd be able to photograph it! Alex also found a leech attached to my leg... not quite the wildlife spotting experience I had hoped for.

After finishing our walk in Mossman Gorge we headed to Daintree village and set off on a Crocodile spotting trip. After an hour of 'Well so and so usually lives around here' and 'he was here this morning' we still had had no success. In the end we managed to find a tiny baby crocodile, probably only around 45cm long, but nothing compared to what we set out to spot! However our guide said he used to frequently swim in the river when he was younger, so maybe there aren't really any crocs in there. We left this trip slightly disappointed, however hopeful of seeing crocs on another cruise further down the river, which was included in the price. We also managed to see two green tree snakes whilst on our cruise, so it wasn't a complete let down! I just really wanted Alex to see his first crocodiles in the wild whilst we were in Queensland. Unfortunately the second cruise was even less successful than the first, no snakes or crocodiles, so we headed over on the ferry to Cape Tribulation for a few days.

Working our way up Cape Tribulation and through the Daintree Rainforest we stopped at a very beautiful viewpoint and again for a walk at a beach and in the rainforest too. After walking through the rainforest Alex found a 'lizard', and told me to quickly look under a bridge to see it as it escaped from him. I naively bent down expecting a little skink or something, so was quite shocked to see a forest dragon right in my face!

Stopping at the beach we were slightly disappointed with the quality, as the beaches at home are beautiful white sand, and although this is an area renowned for natural beauty the beaches are only average. Annoyingly also we could not swim, as it is stinger season, and the water looked so warm and inviting! After we finished at the beach we found a campsite for the night, and were the only ones there, with just the rainforest and the cane toads for company. This was great until Alex decided I needed a cane toad thrown into my shower! And there were a few spiders for company too, which I obviously wasn't too keen on! The next day after a walk at the rainforest discovery centre and checking out a local Ice Cream company we continued driving up the cape towards our accommodation for Christmas at PJ Obriens. Unfortunately it was dead, whereas when I was in the cape 4 years ago it was renowned as the party hostel. One plus side of their being nobody to drink in the bar with however was that we could just drink our own drinks in our van, especially when the bar was closed all of Christmas day, and save lots of money 😊

On Christmas eve after a morning walk down to a nice secluded and picturesque beach we headed out Jungle surfing, zip lining through the top of the rainforest. This was great fun 😊 After the jungle surfing we also headed back out to the jungle in the dark for a night walk. We managed to see some spiders, a dragon, a couple of frogs and some glow in the dark lichen which was very cool. It was also a great experience to be trekking through the jungle after dark with just a few torches.

Christmas Day was a quiet affair, starting with opening presents, breakfast, then heading out for a nice drive to a couple of beaches and a cafe for Christmas lunch. Most of the cape seems to close down for Christmas, but luckily we found a very nice cafe on the beach to eat at, and they even gave us free crackers! After lunch we did one last boardwalk next to the hostel, which took us through the rainforest and out on to the beach. All in all it was a really relaxing christmas, something that not many adults would say! So definitely one to cherish.

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