At 10pm yesterday evening my Tiger airways flight took off from Melbourne and made its way north to warm and sunny Queensland, Cairns to be precise, where my jam packed 3 week adventure down Australia's east coast was going to begin. Only having 3 weeks to travel, I have carefully planned and booked my trip in advance so I know exactly what the next 3 weeks have in store and believe me it's going to be amazing and yes I am excited!!!
I arrived at Gilligans hostel around 2am and after checking in quickly made my way to bed because this morning I got picked up at 7.30am for my first trip - the Active Tropics Cape Tribulation, Daintree and Mossman Gorge trip. This day involved doing a 300km round trip, which meant a lot of time spent in the minibus driving but we saw some beautiful sights and our tour guide was very knowledgeable, constantly providing different facts about Australia, the people, the animals and the sights we saw! For the majority of the day we were driving through the Daintree national park, which is the oldest rainforest in the world!
Our first stop involved spotting some crocs on the Daintree river cruise while having a cup of Daintree tea! The tide was fairly high so we were warned that it would be unlikely that we were going to see any crocs because they like to sit on the banks of the river in the sun, however we were lucky to just about see one burried in one of the banks surrounded by trees. At least I can say I've seen a crocodile!
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| Crocodile Sitting On The Bank |
Our next stop was in the middle of the rainforest where we did a board walk! It was amazing to actually walk through a rainforest and is something I've never done before. It was so peaceful and quiet there and also beautiful! The guide told us about the different trees and plants, how they helped create the rainforest and provide protection to it. There was this one tree where the roots grow in a direction dependent on the toughness and sturdiness of the soil, which causes some of them to grow upwards but very flat and the guide told us and showed us an example of how the tree root all of a sudden finished and was very square, where aborigines had cut the root to use it to make a shield for protection.
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| Boardwalk Through The Daintree Rainforest |
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| Root With A Straight Finish Where An Aborigine Cut It To Make A Shield |
We then continued our drive further north to Cape Tribulation. On the way we was on the lookout for Cassowaries (emu like birds which are aggressive and very quick) and saw the original sign which is now famous for warning drivers to beware of Cassowaries - someone drew on the bottom sign by adding a beak which then made it look like a dead cassowary. We weren't lucky enough to actually see any on the side of the road though unfortunately.
When we arrived at Cape Tribulation we had 20 minutes before lunch was ready which gave us just enough time to make our way down and out of the rainforest to the beach. It was beautiful! Infront of us was soft white sand and crystal blue waters containing a few reefs and behind us was the rainforest! Where reef meets rainforest under clear blue skies - amazing. It was a shame we couldn't spend a bit longer on the beach to soak up a bit of sun and even have a swim but we still had more to see and as I mentioned earlier, a long trip back to Cairns!
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| The Beautiful Cape Tribulation |
After lunch we headed back in the direction we came from to Mount Alexandra lookout, but made a quick stop for ice cream on the way at the Daintree Icecream Company. This wasn't just any old ice cream, this was ice cream made with the fruit grown in the rainforest. The flavours we had were coconut, mango, black sapote (like chocolate pudding) and wattleseed (like mocha). None of these flavours I would have picked by choice and I wasn't sure if I even liked the majority of them, but I was going to try it anyway and I'm glad I did because it was delicious. I mean it's not everyday you get to try fresh fruit ice cream grown in the world's oldest rainforest!
Now we had our ice creams, it was time to get back on track and continue our journey back up to Mount Alexandra lookout. Here we had the opportunity to get out of the minibus and admire the amazing view where we saw the Daintree rainforest and Daintree river meet the sea! It really was beautiful and so different to anything I had seen before!
Our final stop of the day was at the Mossman Gorge. When we arrived we was met by an aborigine who took us into the rainforest and showed us a few different things from the aboriginal culture, including the paint they use to initiate people to the culture, the didgeridoo and a type of leaf which they would create a soapy solution with to cure bites and stings.
We then drove a bit further into the rainforest and past the Mossman Gorge Aboriginal Community to go and visit the Mossman Gorge which we also got to have a swim in! It was nice and refreshing, especially on such a warm day of which we'd spent most of the time sitting on a bus and it was also pretty cool to be swimming in the middle of the rainforest!
After a long but good day of seeing many beautiful sights it was time to head back to Cairns. After only having 4 hours sleep last night, I was so tired and ready to crash and that is exactly what I did after dinner. Besides, tomorrow involves another earlish start for another day of fun and adventure on a trip I am looking forward to and sounds a lot of fun!
For more pictures of this trip Click Here - 4th October Cairns Day 1
For more pictures of this trip Click Here - 4th October Cairns Day 1
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