Daintree to Byron Bay

---

28/10/11
Hello again!
We arrived on the east coast into Townsville from inland central QLD and after recovering from the shock of traffic, traffic-lights, lots of people and humidity we headed north up the coast! We made our way 450km's to Daintree in Far North Queensland where the rainforest meets the coral reef. It felt bizarre to suddenly be surrounded by lush rain-forest, tall tropical trees, rugged mountains and cane fields after so long spent in the hot dry desert! We saw beautiful deep rivers and gorgeous beaches but were unable to swim due to the possibility of a marine stinger making close and potentially deadly contact with us in the sea or of becoming dinner for a ferocious Estuarine Crocodile! We loved the signs in English and German at each bridge reminding people of the danger of swimming in the rivers and creeks due to crocs. At the sighting of each sign one of us would read out loudly, "achtung!" and we would slow down as we crossed the bridge and scan the water for beady eyes, crocs basking on the banks or "logs" moving against the current! There were some water-holes identified in rivers and creeks as safe for swimming so we gleefully slipped in and refreshed our hot bodies, but always after spending at least 5 minutes first scanning for crocs... just in case!
We crossed the Daintree River on a barge and travelled 34km's up to Cape Tribulation named by Captain Cook after his ship ran aground there on the Endeavour Reef.
The Wet Tropics area which stretches from Townsville to Cooktown was listed as a World Heritage area in 1988. According to the Lonely Planet Guidebook the area covers 0.01% of Australia's surface area but has 36% of the mammal species, 50% of the bird species, 60% of the butterfly species and 65% of the fern species. Apparently the Heritage listing finally ensured a total ban on commercial logging there and the Govt has spent more than 23 million re-purchasing jungle properties and adding them to the Daintree National Park.
After swimming in a glorious water-hole one morning we emerged to see a dog running wildly searching for his human! We quickly realised that he had been tied to a truck while his owner had gone for a dip. The terrified dog had broken free (presumably after much thrashing) after a huge Cassowary had wandered by!! Cassowaries (which are found only in North QLD and New Guinea) are a threatened species with only 1200 left in Australia. They are larger than an emu (and are also flightless) and have bigger feet, black feathers, bright blue heads, dangly red bits under their chins and have the original punk hair-style! There are signs everywhere reminding people to drive slowly to prevent that number becoming 1199 or less, so we were excited to see one. The dog was less impressed!!
Finally we turned our faces southward and retraced our steps back to Townsville. We then felt we really were on the homeward stretch!
Prior to arriving back in Townsville we visited the market at Port Douglas, called in at Palm Cove and stopped in Cairns with my cousin, managing to get the van into their back-yard through the car-port with only inches to spare!
We also made our way up the mountain to Kuranda and on our return the world's population almost decreased by 3 European girls and possibly ourselves as well! As we came around a bend, a hired red getz car was coming at us right in the middle of the road! Sue swerved left and at the same time the European girl allowed her instinct to take over, and swerved... right - directly into our path! So for one very long second it looked like we were going to meet face to face. Achtung!! At the last moment she swerved and slipped past us leaving us stalled on the side of the road up against the mountain wondering what had just happened. I reckon she could have done with a little masking-tape arrow pointing left on the inside of her windscreen as we had seen on a hired motorhome!!
Anyway, back in Townsville we visited an ex-colleague and was given a tour of the Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery before we made our way to the glorious Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour. The former is a bit touristy but the scenery is superb from an elevated position looking down upon an azure sea with the mountainous Whitsunday Islands looking majestic and inviting. We were tempted, and took a boat-trip to climb to a lookout and gaze upon the most photographed beach in QLD - the Whitehaven Beach of Whitsunday Island. The sand is almost 100% silica and is very white! We then moored at the beach and enjoyed a swim where the sand is so fine it felt powdery underfoot!
We then snorkelled over the inner Great Barrier Reef with brightly coloured corals. The purples and blues were my favourites! But the most amazing thing was that as the skipper threw burley into the water 3 hump-headed Maori Wrasse (fish!) swarmed around. At about a metre long, they were enormous! When I dived down to be closer they would always glide just out of reach. There was a similarly sized black giant trevally with scary looking sharp white teeth! His nickname was "Mick" after Mick Jagger because of his big fat lips! There were numerous other beautifully coloured fish and as usual, we loved the chance to float upon their world and be totally blown away by it!
From there we headed to a less humid Maryborough where we even donned a jumper one evening for the first time since Perth. We stayed there with Sue's parents for a week and had a lovely time. We even gave the van and car a once-over so we will be ready to do it all again after we've had a few weeks at home! (just joking!).
Now here we are in Byron Bay after a visit to a friend in Brisbane. And I bid you farewell until the next blog!...
Ya'll come back again, ya hear!!
Take Care...
Ros (and Sue)
PS Scroll down for more pichuz of Straya!

---