Wednesday saw us embark on the final ‘activity day’ of this trip, the Daintree Rainforest. We were picked up by a huge 4WD vehicle that looked like it might be more use in active combat than in a holiday resort, but it did prove useful for the roads of Northern Queensland.
Our guide, Kelvin, was brilliant at explaining features of the landscape to us en route to the Daintree River. He also explained something of his views on politicians making decisions about crocodile management from their offices in Canberra, which was interesting.
At the Daintree River, we were again given morning tea before boarding a river cruise to hunt for crocs and snakes. Our first croc sighting was a tiny baby sunbathing on a log. He/she shared my birthday, so I felt we had a mutual understanding already! We then saw a female swimming in the middle of the river, which was unusual as the weather was not really cold enough for a croc to want to cool down. Nothing quite compared to the sheer size of ‘Big Al’ who at 5.5m long was quite content to lie on a bank while hoards of tourists took photos of him!
After crossing the river, we rejoined the 4WD and wound our way through the rainforest of the Alexandra Range to the Alexandra lookout, which gives great views of the Daintree River estuary and out to the sea. Unfortunately, it was raining quite a bit, so the photos don’t do the view justice. We continued on our way to the Daintree Discovery Centre, which is a great place to visit – it was amazing to stand underneath the canopy of the oldest tropical rainforest in the world! The aerial walkway gives a great view of all the various climbers and ferns etc. They only had to cut down two ferns to make the walkway- it weaves its way through the trees- apparently it was constructed using helicopters and aerial imaging.
Lunch was in a canopy and was fabulous- a BBQ with steak, seabass and sausage, with mixed salads and fruit. And wine. It was bizarre because we were sitting in the middle of a torrential downpour, but it was still perfectly warm.
After lunch, we continued our journey north to Cape Tribulation, so named after Capt. Cook ran adrift on the Barrier Reef near there. The beach is stunning, although you can’t swim because of the crocs. There is no tarmaced road north of Cape Tribulation, which is a bit disconcerting! It is famous for being the point where rainforest and beach meet. We walked to the Kulki lookout in order to get a better view of the reef, beach and rainforest, but unfortunately the weather wasn’t playing ball!
On our way back to the Daintree River, we stopped at the Daintree Icecream Company. These people specialize in tropical fruit ice-cream. I had one of their ice-cream taster selections: yellow capote (weird, and not at all as I expected it to taste), whattleseed (like a cappuccino), black sapote (like chocolate pudding) and pineapple (bliss on a spoon). After indulging, we caught the Daintree cable ferry across the river (there are no bridges) and arrived at the south side.
Our final stop of the day was Mossman Gorge. Here, the rainforest borders the Mossman river. I was disappointed we only had half an hour- I would have loved to go swimming here. It was oddly reminiscent of the mountain rivers in Switzerland. They are rebuilding the walkway and trying to involve the local aboriginal community in this project. I would be interested to revisit when it is all finished.
A fabulous day.
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