Now that we are in Australia, we decided that things are going to be done properly and with most desire and dedication…..so today, we were off to pick up our hire car and head up north to see Daintree, Port Douglas, Mossman Gorge, Cape Tribulation and whatever else we came across! Awesome – none of these mopeds Lol! Excited!
So off we went and picked up our posh little Hyundai Getz – a 4 door perfect mobile to get us about for the next few days. We headed straight for Woolworths with our list that we had put together last night which included stuff for breakie, lunch and dinner. We also decided to save us on paying for hostels along the way, we would purchase a tent! In woollies we found a perfect 2 man tent at a bargain price so that was it, we were ready!! The meat n butter n cheese was in the cold bag, along with a box of goon, then the crisps and everything was dossed in the boot!
Off we went along the Captain Cook highway on our way to the first stop of Daintree. Of course along the way the tunes were pumping, we were singing and being silly, completely hyper but it was all safe and good! I think at one point, I was filming us having a sing off with Robbie Williams with Rock DJ – we so were on it Lol!
Anyways, not long for us till we arrived in Daintree and the hunt was on for a campsite. The plan was to find one early, set the tent up then have a drive around and come back for a sleep later on. We found a place called Lync Haven, where we were met Adam, Mika, Scott, Jodie and later we found Borris! It was a wicked place – perfect for what we needed, so we set up camp then Adam invited us for a drink at the bar. We told him later and headed off to explore first then came back and had lots of beers with them all that worked there. Funny lot – real ozzies! They were telling us as much info as we could fit in and it helped with our plans actually. We were all quite drunk and we had a wicked night! The boys were telling us there plans for the Melbourne cup that was coming up in the next few weeks, they were basically driving down from Daintree all the way to Melbourne to bet on some horses and see where their luck took them! Fair play we said!
After a few drinks, Scott and Jodie (the owners) admitted to us that they had just brought a crocodile!! Yes – a croc!! So early morning they said they would introduce us to Borris before we left!! He was big for a young fella!! They had a huge pen for him with a massive swimming pool for him in the middle with trees for shade and all the stuff that I suppose a croc needs!
Anyway – after our meeting, we packed up n back in the car for our next destination Cape Tribulation. Here we wanted to go and see the lookout and of course go down on the beach. Well the lookout was out of this world. Beautiful scenery – you could see for miles it was well worth it. We ventured down onto the beach and were messing around doing handstands and rolley-pollies and stuff for the camera – plus we did the long walk through the rainforest to find us some wildlife Haha! We did too – we found a big monitor lizard! That was cool! Lol
Back to the car and onto the next thing on our list – Adam had booked us onto an Exotic Fruit Tasting session just outside of Cape, on the way to Mossman Gorge so this was the next point on the agenda. Basically, we sat around a huge table in a fruit farm, and were given the opportunity to taste lots of different and exotic (hence the name) fruits. It was cool, I think in total we tried 20 (or it might have been 10!) weird and whacky fruits. There were ice cream bean, black sapottee, white sapottee, orange sapottee, one that tasted like chocolate pudding, on that the texture was like over cooked egg yolks and others that I can’t remember! Oh hold on actually, I think we took a pic of the list…..one second…..West Indian Lime, Abiu, Star Apple, Jackfruit, and Yellow, Black and White Sapote, Rollinia, Sapodilla and ice cream bean!!! Haha there you go!! If you want a list – there it is!!
Anyways, we walked around the fruit farm too afterwards to see where they were grown etc then that was basically it! Good little experience! It didn’t cost much Haha!
After this, we headed for Mossman Gorge to see the gorge and possibly go in the water for a bit. As time went on it got darker a bit earlier than we thought so managed to get to the gorge in the dark!! Lol, we still (stupidly) walked around it, took some pictures to Haha, they weren’t that great as you can imagine so we had to leave it, get some dinner and set up the tent. We stayed this night at Mossman Field Leisure Park – again real cheap for our tent.
We went back there early the next morning to get a proper look when the light was up! Haha it was lovely, massive pebble like rocks formed the gorge with water running along causing little waterfalls in a few parts. We were pleased we saw it in the light. Very good! We had to get there early today because our main mission was to get to Hartley’s Crocodile Farm in time for the feeding and all the best bits basically. It was a crazy place – the people that worked there were out of their minds!! These crocs were massive! We went on a cruise along the river and they fed these huge crocs with chicken heads, getting them to jump right up out of the water so we could all see the power they have in the water! Quality! What a show! We must have been on the boat for about 15minutes after a full lap of their river. Saw lots of crocodiles and were educated on the basics of them.
After the croc boat, we had a walk around the grounds where we ventured to the reptile bit, and saw some snakes and some other animals. On the way we also saw the cassowaries (huge bird animals bit like ostrich/emu) and no joke these are apparently more lethal than the crocs! They have a huge claw which they use like a blade to cut their prey to death! Nice hey what Australia has to offer!!
After our time was up at Hartley’s we jumped back in our beast (the car that is!) and headed for the harbour town of Port Douglas. It wasn’t much further to be honest so we had plenty of time once we arrived. We went into the tourist information point to see if we could find a campsite that was close to the main road so we could go for a dinner and a pint tonight. Pendonis Campsite was the spot for the night – the tent was up, we had had a swim in the pool and we were ready to hit the town of Port Douglas. Quite a quiet place, a really nice harbour with very expensive boats n stiffs around but nice. Touristy but hey – we weren’t fussed. The bonus was that we found a Rattle and Hum pub/restaurant to settle in for the night (a bonus because they sell strongbow!!). A steak and a few pints later (it being actually really late!) we headed back to the tent! It was a bit breezy this night so we went to sleep praying that we were gunna be in the same spot when we got up the next morning Lol!! We were all good though Lol!
Now it’s Thursday and today the car is due back in Cairns at like 9.00am so it was up bright and early because we had the drive back to do so a nice coastal drive was exactly the perfect way to finish off our few days with the car. Awesome!
We had moved into a different hostel on our return, just one that was abit closer to the esplanade and everything else really, so this one was called Cairns International Hostel. We were in a large shared dorm (think it was 10 beds) and it was pretty busy which was cool, we got chatting to 2 German sisters called Jennifer and Jessica who were off their head – quality! It was actually Halloween so we were to get dressed up and head out on the town with them and have a giggle and a dance!
Very saw head early this morning – not a good idea cause today we were starting our Oz Experience Bus venture and the first stop being to Mission Beach! This was a long way on the road in a 16 seater mini bus and we were not looking forward to it Lol!
Luckily for us, Bogan the driver made it worth sobering up for – he was a right laugh. A typical ozzie butch bloke (not fit in the slightest) but a wicked sense of humour and along the way was giving us lots of information regarding where we were and what was happening. As it was our first trip, he first took us to the office where we were given our ticket and bus pass, had to pay a small fee and then we hit the road.
Along the way we had 2 stops, one was at a croc farm for a free look around, and the other one was in Innisfail, a small town just for a lunch break! Then that was it, we were in Mission Beach!
Scotty’s Beach House, Mission Beach, a nice hostel. We were in a comfy 6 bed dorm, we had our own pool, which had a balance beam across it – dirty dancing style, washing machines, tumbles and everything else you could need. The kitchen was huge too, and clean so that was a bonus. Once we had got here we had decided this was where we were gunna do our white water rafting and our skydive!! Whoop whoop I had managed to convince Lisa to do a skydive, only cause I said I would do the rafting! Lol! We compromised! Lol.
Another early morning, what are we doing getting up so early man, we are on holiday aint we haha! Oh well, today was a let off, today was rafting day! We were picked up from Scotty’s and taken to Tully River, the main river to do the rafting on in Australia. We were given the safety talk on the bus on the way there and that was it, we were kitted up, and sent in our boats! We were asked who were strong or not so strong swimmers out of our group to determine where we were to sit in the raft, so I held my hands up and said nope not me, I am not confident in this situation! Awesome I got put near the instructor! Just close enough for him to grab me if I were to get into trouble you know!!
On we hopped, and made our way down the 14km stretch of water, going through our first rapid called ‘the alarm clock’. Basically this was the wake up call – get us used to what was coming! It was an easy one and I loved it – really got into it lol! Once we had passed this one we were given the option to swim/float down the next one, so again we were used to what to do if we did get thrown in the water. That was cool too, we had to point our feet down stream and the current took us, we did hit into some rocks but im talking bout casually floating not been gushed down it!!
After the next I don’t know, 7 or 8 rapids, it was lunch time, we stopped half way down the river and we all had a bbq lunch – nice! We had worked up an appetite to be fair!
So we got back in the raft for what we were told to be the real rapids coming up. And the instructors weren’t lying! The next few were big but none of our group had yet to be thrown into the water – we were pretty damn good! Then we came to a massive 10ft drop rock, where we climbed up and jumped off into the river – that was a real buzz! Bit scary but cool and well worth it! And me and Lisa both did the jump.
I reckon we only had 2 left after the rock, and this time our instructor said he was to challenge us, so got us all to sit right up at the front of the raft (all of us) and we went down the next rapid that had a massive drop….backwards!! As yep as you guessed it, because we were all sat up the front, and there was a drop, it basically flipped us right up into the air! Quality! We were all in the water Haha the whole group!! Wicked fun!
The day was full with 5 hours actually rowing on the water, 14kms down 12 rapids, and very hard work with the heat beaming down too, so as you can imagine, when we got back to the hostel, we led out in the last hours of sun, then joined in with the drinking games with all the people had met already! Awesome!!