G'Day People, Well, the world's oldest Rainforest in the North of Australia - parts of which are thought have been untouched for about 400 million years - and the meteor that is thought the have wiped out the dinosaurs covering most of the world with a blanket of ice was approximately 150 milion years ago - apparently the reason this one survived is because Australia was over the Equator at the time and the rainforest covers a fairly sizeable mountain which was too high the blanket of ice but obviously not to high for trees and wildlife. So - we were picked up (by Jungle Tours) around 7.45am on Monday morning, and headed north to Mossman which was our first stop. Our guide informed us bit and bobs of infomation about certain plants, etc, before we came across Mossman Gorge where we went for a nice little swim -and the water was absolutely freezing - not sure it was colder than Swan Pool though, and it wasn't like the sun was beating down on us as we were covered from the sun by overhanging trees - we were in the rainforest after all. Was it Dangerous? No, there were no Crocodiles or snakes or over large fish/animals to harm us - well, not that we came across any way, only the impeading rapids if we drifted too far down stream. We swiftly dried ourselves and headed back to the bus and were taken for lunch at this nice little restaurant before moving onto the Daintree River for a bit of crocodile spotting. We saw fairly average sized crocs on the river banks sun bathing - I supoose being at the top of the food chain makes life a little more relaxing. It was soon about 3pm and we were arrving at our hostel and with a little bit of mess up on the tour company's behalf we managed to upgrade our room to a double for free! We even spotted a Cassowary as we arrived - not necessaruly lilfe threatening as long as to don't get too close and pee them off - otherwise they'll jumped at you with both feet and swipe at you with one of there bigs claws and if your unlucky have your guts spilled out all over the floor. Needless to say we didn't go very close. The Hostel was very nice - all the paths lined with the rainforest and the Cape Tribulation Beach about 10 metres from the Bar which was about 50 metres from our room. We didn't do a lot that day, and by the evening we had met up with Richard and Aoife whom we'd met in Noosa and done Fraser Island with, and just kinda generally continously bumped into on our travels. We then passed the evening with them drinking and playing pool. The next day (Tuesday) we rose late but managed to walk to the look out point at the end of the beach before grabbing a bite to eat and playing a board game called Battle of Sexes again with Richard and Aoife (Richard and Steve won - proving we know move about sewing and ironing than Emily and Aoife know about cars and sport - not sure if thats a good or a bad thing for me though). The afternoon came and we were collected by "Jungle Surfers" to go for a canopy ride through the Rainforest a bit like Tarzan but much less of the swinging and more of the harnesses and general sliding - our highest point was were about 25 metres above the rainforest floor. At 4.30pm we were picked up by Jungle Tours and taken to our next location - Koala in Daintree National Park at Cape Kimberly. Here was just as nice but the weather kept us inside - and being in the rainforest i'm sure you can imagine the down pour. The rain lasted the evening the night and pretty much all the next day - but the rain on Wednesday wasn't very hard. Even so we were enterained by our books and several games of Monopoly. For a while we were worried that our tour bus had forgotten about us as they hadn't rang to say they were coming but we were taken to the end of the resort lane (which was 5km) and hope they would stop and pick us up. They did and about 2 hours later we were back at our hostel. We weren't back for long and released we had free meals at the hostel we were in so plodded along to get that. It wasn't very big but was fairly tasty. We had Baskin and Robins Cookie Dough though to supplement our meal though! Speak soon Ems and Steve xxx