March 9

Our guide for today was EARLY. Jim found us having our coffee so we quickly checked out of the hostel and loaded our bags in the trailer.
We headed north along the ocean while Jim talked about the history of Northern Queensland and how Cape Tribulation was named after James Cook getting stuck on the reef and all his tribulations after that.
A cruise up the Daintry River was nice but we only spotted 2 crocodiles. Darwin spoiled us for croc hunting 🙂
The hike through the rain forest was beautiful with Jim pointing out native species, talking about the wild life including tree kangaroos and casuaries.
Sue and I got dropped off at the Fern Tree lodge where the fellow checking us in gave us a run down of all the things to do in the area. We quickly made up our beds and put stuff away, made ourselves a bun with boiled egg and humus (really good!), checked out the wifi and then headed out for a walk about.
The walk through this part of the rain forest was really nice as we were quiet and listened to the sounds of the bush while watchful for casuaries. We emerged onto Myall beach. It was beautifully calm and inviting and it was SO hot but the threat of the deadly box jelly fish along with the odd croc was enough to keep us out. It was kind of eerie. No birds or people. I kept thinking Jurassic park and a dinosaur was going to jump out of the bush at any time.
We stopped in at a shop to see if we could go out to the reef in the morning as it looks MUCH nicer for snorkeling here and the reef is only a 30 minute boat ride away, not the 1.5 hour ride from Cairns. Nobody’s going out. Apparently there are 2 converging cyclones on the way.
3 hours later we were back in our room for a cool down before heading out again to have pizza for dinner. The Daintry pizza had artichokes, tomatoes, goat cheese….lots of stuff and was really good. The walk back along the beach was nice but then we had to go through the bush to get to the road. It was getting dark and I was a little freaked out as I’m far too aware of nocturnal creatures that live there. We made plenty of noise and got through with only a toad sighting. No dinosaurs 🙂

March 10, Monday

We woke up to pouring rain so just enjoyed the morning having multiple coffees, skyping with family, updating the blog and editing photos. It’s a beautiful place to be stuck in the rain with an abundance of greenery, birds and a couple of puppies to amuse us.
The bus picked us up early afternoon and the first stop was an shop where they did home made ice cream. There were a ridiculous number of flavours to choose from and Sue settled on ginger and I had pistachio.
We rode over winding roads through rainforest higher and higher and stopped at a lookout for a view that stretched for miles. Mossman gorge was the next stop where some went swimming but Sue and I explored the bush, checking all the smaller trees for river dragons and looking for casuaries that were probably there laughing at us as we walked right by them without seeing them.
On the way back to Cairns we followed the ocean and enjoyed great views and then passed through Port Douglas. It’s a pretty town with great access to the reef. I wish I had more time in this area. Joe gave us a bit of history on the town and the reason Spain is one of the only European countries whose residents can’t get a working visa in Australia. Curious? Google it 🙂
Back in Cairns for the night we both said we could have spent more time here. There’s lots to see in the area and better weather on the reef would be nice. Oh well. Off to New Zealand tomorrow.