We took 2 days out of the tranquility and beauty of PD (Port Douglas for those who didn't read the last blog!) to visit the further Northern attractions of Cape Tribulation and Mossman Gorge. The grey humid weather we had experienced our first few days in PD had subsided and it was now blistering heat - a good 40 degrees and very sunny. Our little Getz hire car was brilliant - pumping our the aircon and not overheating once :-).
Mossman Gorge is just up the road from PD. It reminded us a lot of Lynn Valley in Vancouver, as it is a river gorge with a swing bridge around the rainforest (simple but effective). Its a beautiful spot to go for a swim or a short walk.
From there we headed into the Daintree National Park crossing the notorious crocodile infested Daintree river. The boat was seriously "old-school" and operated by a pully from one side to the other. The Daintree is a huge National rainforest that encompasses some of the most dense rainforest in all of Australia. The drive was breathtaking with some amazing views and cool little stops. Of the many stops, we walked into and above the rainforest at the Discovery Centre, ate locally made rainforest fruit icecream, walked a beautiful section of boardwalk through a mangrove and river section of the rainforest, and visted the beautiful completely deserted Cape Tribulation beach. Its beautiful up here - but very alienated from the rest of civilisation. We stayed over night at a beach hut which was overrun with Orb Spiders, and walked the beach for while always cautious that there were Salt water Crocs in the sea and we were miles away from anywhere! Scary but a cool experience. We also were on the look out for the native Cassolwary, a bird related to the Ostreach and Emu - that is usually viewable around the Daintree - unfortunately after 2 days of searching we saw diderly squat!
However we did a cruise along the Daintree river and got to see some Crocs in the wild including some babies), as well as a beautiful green tree frog, a native honey catcher bird and a Australian tree snake (which was bright green).