Waking up today, the weather was still wet, and cloudy. I had a long tour booked today up to Cape Tribulation about 175km away from Cairns. I was ready this morning, and didn't have to rush. I think I was a bit paranoid because yesterday I was nearly late. The driver Wiley picked me up about 07:20, and after a few other stops to pick up people we started to head north. Everyone on the bus seemed nice, one even lived close to Göteborg! We all chatted and the first hour went really quickly, driving along the sea view road. Stopping at the Mossman Gorge. I really enjoyed the walk through the rain forest which was on my left and the river on my right. Due to all the rain we had the water was moving fast, rushing over rocks. It was nice to sit and listen to the water. They had an iron cable bridge, a group of us started to swing it, we were advised by our guide that it would be ok! It just bounced around really. Along the walk there was a couple of view point along the gorge with great views back up the river. By now I had split from the group as I was reading all the information boards. I'm glad I did, I got stuck behind another toured group. They were all looking at something in the tree's and taking pictures. I have no idea what they were looking at. One of the girls pointed out the dragon lizard that was about 2 meters in front of my face. (Not sure how I missed it!) it wasn't very big, and the picture I took wasn't that great. The walk was a large circle shape, and brought us back to the car park. Wiley had put together tea, coffee and biscuits. I decides to have a tea - because it was a local tea that was grown up in Daintree, the area we were heading next. I'm actually starting to like tea I think. Black with a little sugar!!

Wiley started to give everyone stick, and we all had some banter going on in the bus. It was really good and made the next part of the journey seem like it went by so quick. The bus picked up the lunch from the crossroads cafe, and we saw a white lipped tree frog. It was bright green. (I think I've found the colour to paint my front room when I'm back!). Getting back on the bus, there was only 20 minutes until the Daintree ferry crossing. It was a vehicle transporter, that is attached to 2 massive steal cables that it pulls it's self along. This was is the same river that we would be returning on to do the river cruise. It only took a couple of minutes to get to the other side. We had to wait a little while as it had just left. We were warned away from the water by our guide and a massive sign. The crocodiles have been known to get close. I remember that when I was here back in 2001 a guide said "don't be afraid of the crocodiles you can see, it's the ones you can't!".

After the ferry there was a short drive up to the Alexandra range lookout. The bus parked up, and we walked over to the ledge to look at this stunning view. Except you could see sod all. The cloud and mist was so low, you could only just make out the outline of the mountains in the distance. It had started to rain now. We were now in the Cape Tribulation national park. We took a walk sound the Jindalba. It was a broad walk a meter off the ground. Our guide pointed out the plants, fruits and we talked about the famous Cassowary this is the worlds most deadliest bird. There was no sight of one while we were walking around. While I was walking this part of the rain forest I could feel that I was being eaten by mosquito's. They had bitten all the way down my right leg, and the back of my hand. I really wanted to scratch them bad!! But stopped myself. I was planning to take some piriton if I couldn't stop itching. (but knew this would make me want to sleep!). As we drove over one of the Bridges we spotted one of the cassowary infact two, a male and a baby! The adult was massive, with it's bright blue and red colours, the baby was brown and looked nothing like the grown up one! So glad we had seen one in the wild and in the safety area of the bus! Driving to the lunch stop on the Cape Tribulation main beach our guide was pointing at things on the side of the road, including the sugar fields, the mountain names, islands in the distance. He told us that one of the islands we could see is the place Steve Irwin died by the stingray spike through his heart. We drove past the ice cream place that we were going to stop at on the return if we had time, as we did Wiley told us how he has only ever missed the ice cream place twice. Once when the bus broke down, the other because he didn't like the group! Ha ha.. About 10 seconds after he said this, it felt like he was messing around with the wheel and started to slow down... "Hey Guys, we have a problem!" we all joked because after what he just said he was having a joke on us! Except we did have a problem the front drivers side wheel had punctured.! It couldn't have happened at a more perfect time! We had to all leave the bus. Wiley with the help of another tour guide that stopped sorted it out in 40 minutes. Just means we world have to cut 40 minutes some where else. We all decided to have our lunch onboard which means we wouldn't need as long in the main beach at Cape Tribulation. We arrived and had enough time to walk along the beach, and walk up the hillside to the viewing platform. It was so nice, even they clouds didn't ruin it. I just sat watching these green tree ants they were pretty bit. They were carrying what looked like dryed worms along the railings. When I took a closer look I could see hairs?? They weren't worms at all but spiders legs! Massive spiders legs...! I walked to the end of the railings. By this time I've seen 4 of these things working there way across... The remains of the spider just hangs! Sick. With only 1 leg remaining and part of the body the ants had nearly finished. It was pretty horrible knowing it was a spider. I left pretty sharpish after that! We were running a little bit behind. So we could only stop at the ice cream place, and get back onboard the bus to eat it. It was a set thing they offered. 4 different types of local fruit ice cream in a bowl that cost $6. I can only name two of the flavours, mango and macadamia!! They were both really nice. The other two, one was a little like chocolate, not sure the fruit, but it was ok. The 4th was like eating coffee icecream. It wasn't good, I quickly asked around the group of anyone wanted it, and everyone said no. I had just enough time to fling it off my bowl into a bush, dropping the bits still left in the car park. We then went via the view point again, as the weather had improved! There was a much better view and managed to take some photos. It was then a short drive to the boat pier where we would take the river cruise. It was a pretty big boat that would have taken 50 people, but their was only 5 onboard! (from our tour!).the boat went up the river and our guide was pointing out things on the way. My main goal was to see a crocodile. The first animal I saw was a kingfisher, it was bright blue, and just on the side of the river! After about 10 minutes I spotted the first crocodile! Laying in the sun on the bank of the river. It was called Rex, because a year before it had eaten another tour guides pet dog of the same name. Our cruise guide was giving us all the facts about the wildlife, and told us they had 2 deaths on the river. The first was a drunken girl, she fancied a swim! Her remains were found at the bottom of the river. The other was a child of the age of 4. He was playing on the bank of the river, and was grabbed by a crocodile from the water. This crocodile was caught and the child's remains returned to the family and was then put in a zoo, and he is still alive today. A really said story. The dad of the boy had a river train boat, and ran tours. He sold it after the child's death, and was saw it on the bank of the river.

We continued to look for crocodiles, and into total 4 adult ones the biggest 4.5 meters called scar face! We also saw about 10 babies! They were so tiny. It's hard to imagine they turn into massive killers. The boat trip came to an end, and I had another black tea before we got back on the bus and would drive the 2hrs back to the hostel. I slept a bit of the way, the Piriton sorted that out. And about 40 minutes from cairns, we were able to take pictures of the dusk. It was great, you could see the sky getting darker and darker! Got back on the bus and returned to the hostel. I was leaving the next morning early so checked with reception what I needed to do, and where to go for the greyhound bus. It was about 7:30 by the time I was sorted, and was going out for something to eat. The place I promised myself I had to eat, more importantly to check out a special toilet. For those that don't know, there is a toilet in the Rattle and Hum that is a piece of 1 way mirrored glass. So they guys in the toilet wee up this glass, seeing everyone in the restaurant. From outside, All you can see is the mirror! Anyway, it was really funny! But when I checked it out, they had put something in front of it.. So it's not the same anymore. :-( my top toilet now is the ION Sky Bar in Singapore! It was so busy, I couldn't be bothered to wait, so I treated my self to Nando's...!!
It was pretty late when I got back to the hostel, I had been sharing with a crazy guy from west Australia. He would talk to me about the biggest load of crap! Really bad jokes, jokes that weren't even funny... I am sure he was on something.! Anyway, I set my alarm. Put my headphones on to drown him out, and had a Piriton! They are great for when you need to sleep!