Ferries, Cassowaries and Safari Tents - Tuesday 18th September 2012

Only 141km to travel to Cape Tribulation and our first tent pack up for ages was completed with ease. Just out of Cairns we hit our first road works and lollypop person and our first long delay. With the scenery around so great it didn't really matter as we came across more and more road works. A lot of the road was only 80kmp speed limit and down to less on the twisty mountain bits. Mountainous Rain Forest on one side and Ocean in the other - another tough day at "The Retirement Office" as we call it. Our timing for the Ferry across the Daintree River was good and we only had a short wait. It was here that we saw our first Crocodile warning sign.

The road from the Daintree River through to our stop at Cape Tribulation Camping was narrow, hilly and twisty but ever so pretty. Regular speed humps and warning signs made you aware of the possibility of meeting a Cassowary but alas we didn't see one. Probably a good thing as you don't want to meet a giant chook with attitude when you are on a motorbike.

As we were only going to stay two nights we had booked into a "Safari Tent" which turned out to be a small basic box of a tent with a bit of a veranda. Just a bed inside and two chairs and a tiny table outside. Two electric fans in the room provided cooling but the shade and green of the rain Forest on our doorstep provided a cooling relief. A lot over priced at $70 per night but the park is great, the beach is a 50m walk and the camp kitchen and facilities are good.

After checking about the chances of getting eaten by a Croc or stung to death by stingers in the ocean we opted for a short walk to Mason's Waterhole in the river. It was an idyllic swimming hole in picturesque rain forest with river washed rocks on the bottom and crystal clear water with good size fish swimming around. Running mountain streams in shady rain forest are always going to be one thing - cold! It was well worth the initial breathlessness to go on to enjoy the refreshing swim.

The evening was capped off by cooking a spicy Malaysian stir fry sipping red wine and chatting with a wide variety of other campers in the spacious camp kitchen. I was expecting the surrounding forest to be full of noisy bird life with their shrill calls but surprisingly it was very quiet and very dark, interrupted only occasionally by the snorkling and snuffling noises emanating from within the Safari Tent.

Dave the big white hunter.