Rainforest Day

Our last full day in the Cairns area and we take a tour with Daintree Safaris. We were promptly picked up at our hotel at 7 am and then traveled along the coast to the town of Port Douglas where we picked up two sisters who were on holiday from Perth. So there were just 4 of us on this tour today, plus the guide, which was very nice. We travelled in a comfortable vehicle through along fields covered with sugar cane growing in various stages to the Daintree National Park, which is the oldest continuous rainforest in the world. Our very knowledgable guide, Nicholas, led us through the trails of the rainforest and pointed out various birds and plants. He filled us full of information--so glad there was not a test at the end of the tour. Some of the trees in the rainforest are 1200 to 1400 years old. The rainforest meets the sea at Cape Tribulation, which was our next stop.





Rainforest stream



Rainforest



Fields of sugar cane, the #1 industry in Australia.  Tourism is #2.

Trail through rainforest

(Marie A.--this one's for you and your 3rd grade class study of spiders--it's a lichen spider and was almost impossible to see as it blended in with the lichen on the tree trunk.  The flash of the camera made it visible.)

Cape Tribulation was named by Capt. James Cook in 1770 when his ship Endeavor ran aground on a coral reef while he was navigating the Great Barrier Reef. Through an ingenious way of sealing the hole in the hull with a canvas sail which was lined with wool and lanolin from the wool of the sheep on board, covering it all with tar and placing this now waterproof 'bandage' on the outside of the hull, and then tossing overboard canons and anchors to lighten the ship's ballast, he was able to move the ship off the reef during high tide and get it safely to shore for repairs. He wrote about his trials and tribulations sailing in the reef and thus named this particular area Cape Tribulation. We walked the beach and hiked to a lookout. Once again, Grandson Enzo got recognition on the beach.

Cape Tribulation

Driving through the rainforest was beautiful. To get to this area we had to cross the Daintree River on a ferry. There are no bridges--if one didn't want to pay the $21.00 roundtrip fee, it would mean a drive of 500 km roundtrip to find a bridge. The expense of building a bridge wasn't the issue. Roads would have had to been widened and that evidently requires much bureaucratic paperwork/permissions when trying to do so in a World Heritage area--about impossible they say.

Lunch was at the Daintree Tea House where we dined on freshly caught barramundi (ocean perch)...well, Terry had a steak....and an assortment of Australian fruits. The owner of the establishment came over to the table and talked about each of the varieties. Some were good...some not so. One, called jackfruit, had the texture of slime, although the taste was not bad.

After lunch we went on a boat ride on the Daintree River in hopes of spotting some wildlife. We slowly cruised close to the banks of the river looking for crocodile, snakes and birds. Well, we did see a croc--a big one named Scarface, but he kept his distance. We also saw a baby croc sunning on a tree limb just above the water....and hidden from Scarface, who is probably his father. The male crocs seem to like to eat the young ones.

Back on the road, we went to a gorge where a river (not the croc infested one) runs over a rocky area. We were able to take a refreshing swim in the river before calling it a day and heading back to our hotel in Palm Cove.  While we were in the river, a rugby team showed up to swim and jump in the rapids.  One of the guys did a canonball jump right next to Terry.  When the guy surfaced, his teammate yelled that he had 'splashed the old man'.  Ouch!  That hurt, eh Terry?

Swimming hole in the gorge river

Terry about to jump into the rapids

Terry's in there somewhere floating on by....

Flowers seen on our travels today.

Next up is a travel day to Melbourne so it's now time to pack the suitcases again.