Yesterday we had a relaxed morning and caught friends on tv in the lounge area while eating crumpets for brekkie. We got out and about fairly soon after that and walked along the boardwalk towards the lagoon. The lagoon was lovely, a man made beach/swimming pool really but as it was so humid and at 31 degrees it was a nice oasis after a hot walk. There aren't really beaches in cairns it was all a bit murky and muddy with lots of box jellyfish apparently. The pool was really nice and well kept though so we had a nice relaxed afternoon swimming and reading on the fake sand. That evening we went out for a Mexican with good backpacker discounts! We went with 4 others from the hostel and all chose from the value $5/10 menu. Again another early night last night as we'd made an impulsive decision to do a Daintree rainforest tour the next day at Cape Tribulation.
Today was another 6am alarm. I changed it from my lion king tone as I don't think the rest of the dorm appreciated circle of life that early in the morning the day we went diving. We got up and had breakfast then went to meet the bus. There were a few others from our hostel on the same Cape Tribulation tour which was cool, we got chatting to a lady that was visiting from the UK. Once we'd picked others up from different hostels and met our guide, Wylie, we high tailed it to the Daintree river were we met our guide for the cruise and had morning tea, locally grown Daintree tea. The weather wasn't great and the tide was at its highest so we weren't expecting to see any of the famous Aussie wildlife, but after a bit of searching we saw 2 crocs! They were all salties in this river and in the area, the first one we came across was Scooter, a 3 meter female croc, just sunbathing on the bank. Amy spotted her first and then the whole boat was up getting a close look as the driver manoeuvred us very close! We went a little down the river as the weather was brightening up and we saw a baby, well hidden on the side, only about 2/3ft long. So we were happy, and our guide was very informative about the reptiles and, their habitats and other plants and wildlife on the river. All too soon the cruise was over an Wylie met us the other side of the river, and we got back in the bus to avoid the other tour buses at the lookout. We were first to get to Alexandra lookout, it was gorgeous even though the weather wasn't perfect, the view stretch down to the shore, to the islands on the horizon and the mountains framing everything in the background. The next stop was a walk through the rainforest as Wylie stopped and pointed various things out to us like birds and plants. Our guided rainforest walk was at Jindalba, a spot notourious for the cassowary bird... A bird to be cautious of! A 2 meter tall bird with a blue head that has been known to kill and seriously injure people with very powerful dinosaur looking legs with a razor sharp knife like middle claw. I must admit I thought this was an April fools joke... A cocky bird standing taller than me with deadly knife claws that can run at 30mph... But once arriving to the walk and seeing the caution signs I realised this was infact a native species of bird! Luckily we didn't come across any, I was quite intrigued to see this beast for real but maybe from a distance! The walk was short but interesting, saw many nasty looking plants and trees with big spikes or perturbing hooks, giant ants that apparently taste very strongly of lemon. I can't confirm this myself but the German guy with us took a lick and did affirm this! Feeling pretty peckish after a busy morning, we headed to Cape Tribulation beach for our picnic lunch. A beach warning against swimming or standing too close to the waters edge due to Saltwater crocs and deadly jellyfish! Stunning area though and a place known to be where the reef meets the rainforest. As the Daintree fringes the beach and the reef can be seen just offshore. After an hour for lunch and time to check out the beach we headed to the Mossmangorge gorge with a nice icecream stop on the way. A family run ice cream establishment where they make tropical fruit icecream from their trees in the area. Everyone got a big pot of 4 flavours- pineapple, mango, jackfruit, wattleseed (which tastes like coffee) for $6.50. Full up on icecream we headed for one of the final stops on the day tour. The Mossman gorge was beautiful and arguably one of the best parts of the day minus the millions of mosquitoes! We climbed down the rocky boulders and took the plunge into the gorge, it was fresh and I was a little concerned about crocs but we were told it was guaranteed there was none there, the swim was fantastic, really refreshing and just so serene.
On our way back to cairns we drove through Port Douglas and stopped at another great lookout called Rex lookout. A great but tiring day, so glad we decided to impulsively book the tour.