Travel: DAINTREE RAINFOREST - East Coast Australia Adventures Part 5

The following morning after my time in Cairns (check that out here) was an early start as I was picked up outside my hostel for my Cape Tribulation tour. We had a few more pickups en route before we headed off up North, first stopping at Mossman Gorge for a ‘Welcome to Country’ ceremony. This involved an Aboriginee tribal member teaching us about the various plants they use for medicine, food, and paint; and then inducting us through a smoking ceremony to welcome us to the land we were about to explore.

We took a shuttle into the gorge where we were given free time to walk through the forest and swim in the raging river, throwing ourselves into the white water and splashing downstream with the hope of catching onto a nearby rock before you disappeared into the ether. Certainly a refreshing, if slightly terrifying experience, given the humidity.

Onwards we continued up the coast with our next stop being a crocodile cruise. We were led into an entry area to wait, and given free Daintree black tea to try – iced or hot – before being led down to our long boat. What followed was a pleasant two hour cruise along the river, which I enjoyed more as a relaxing cruise than a crocodile cruise, as we did only end up seeing two crocodiles in the time. Still, two is better than none, and it was still impressive to gawk at their sheer size as we cruised by.

We hopped off further up the river where our bus was waiting to take into the Daintree. We kept our eyes peeled for Cassowaries as we drove, but these birds are so elusive the chances of seeing them was pretty close to catching a blue moon. Around 1:30pm we arrived in Cape Tribulation, and pulled into the Ferntree Rainforest Lodge.

Now, when I’d heard that I’d be going on a 2 day tour of Cape Tribulation, I’d assumed that it would indeed be a 2 day tour, not a half day tour where we would be dropped off alone for 24 hours to fend for ourselves, and then picked up for the second half of the tour the following day. I knew nothing about Cape Tribulation or what to do there, so this was a bit of a shock to the system.

There were only two of us from the tour staying overnight, so we dropped our bags into the room and then headed to the restaurant for dinner, with all meals included on my package. I opted for a tofu wrap with some yummy bush spiced chips which we ate in the open air amongst scrubfowls scratching in the dirt beside us.

Figuring we’d better make something of our day, we headed over to Dubuji Boardwalk to wander through the prehistoric jungle and see what wildlife we could spot. For this part of the journey, I was particularly pleased to not be with a large tour group as we were able to take our time, walking at a snails pace to make sure we didn’t miss a single thing, and as a result caught sight of reptiles, creepy crawlies, crabs, and even some wild pigs hiding in the bushes which gave us quite a fright as they rampaged through the shrubbery.

At the end of the boardwalk was Myall Beach which we took a gentle stroll along, making sure to stay well away from the waters edge as we’d been warned (and told various scary stories) about the crocodiles who lurked beneath the shallow surface all along the North Queensland Coast. No thank you. It was then back to camp for an early dinner before a guided night walk that we’d booked on a whim earlier that evening.

The night walk started before it even began as we were greeted with a huge python on the hostel boardwalk. Thankfully she presented no danger to us as she was so full with an entire duck that she could barely move, let alone attack us. We continued off into the dark for some of the best hours of my entire trip.

I absolutely adore wildlife, and pride myself on being quite observant when it comes to it, so spent the next three hours spotting as many animals as I could, and believe me when I tell you there was a lot, and of course we were not even breaking the surface of what was actually out there hiding in the dark. We saw ants, dragonflies, frogs, peppermint insects, crickets, stick insects, snails, mice, and a hell of a lot of spiders. Normally, I’d consider myself pretty wary of spiders, but somehow being in their territory made them less scary to me – I suppose I just don’t like them when they’re in my space, and here I was in theirs.

What a wonderful few hours, and our guide ended up suggesting he should have given us the tour for free, me for my observatory skills, and the other girl for taking photographs of many of the critters we saw en route that he could then post onto the website.

Having survived the night without any further run ins with unwanted visitors in our room, we woke up for breakfast and then a lazy walk down to the beach to admire the juxtaposition between forest and sea. Back to Ferntree for a pizza lunch, which quite frankly I could’ve done without given the amount of food I’d consumed over the past 24 hours.

Our bus came to collect us and we headed down to the Marrdja Boardwalk to check out the strangler figs and lick some green ants. No, that wasn’t a typo – we were literally told to catch a green ant and then give it a taste, as these ants taste either like lemon, lime, or sour. Interesting that.

Quite frankly I preferred our stop at the Daintree Ice Cream Company where ice cream is locally produced using local ingredients. The options available on the day we visited black sapote, wattleseed, coconut, and mango; all very yummy so of course I had to force them down in spite of how full I was feeling!

We carried on to Alexandra Range Lookout for scenic views and then drove through Port Douglas, a popular holiday destination full of resorts and luxury boats. The sunset welcomed us back to Cairns, and I spent the evening exploring a little of the surrounding area on foot, heading down to the beach and watching street performers taking advantage of the busy night. I’m not sure whether there’s much to see in Cairns, but I feel like I could have done with an extra day there to see the city itself, so maybe I’ll add that to an upcoming trip!

Thanks for reading! This is the last post in my East Coast Australia adventures, but the fun doesn't end there - I next headed to Darwin and Kakadu National Park, so stay tuned on Twitter @CiarasCountry to be the first to know when that's posted. Have you travelled around Australia? I'd love to hear about your travels - drop me a message in the comments below!