Although we were eager to spend more time in Cairns, we packed up Friday morning and decided to head into the rainforest for the weekend. The guy running the pool diving lesson gave us some great tips for places to visit on the way up to Cape Tribulation. Our first recommended stop was, of course, another swimming hole. Mossman gorge is located within the boundaries of the Daintree National Park, so our walk along this creek brought us into the heart of one of the oldest rainforests in the world.

Again, we were rewarded by great, cool water in the swimming hole after a sweaty walk along a raised boardwalk through the trees. All of these great swim spots have been incredible and very different. In this one, schools of relatively large fish were swimming around, no more than curious of the people floating by.

To get up to Cape Trib, we had to cross the Daintree River, and the only way to do so is by taking a cable ferry. It was just a quick 2 minute ride across - we were hoping to see a croc or two on our way by, but no luck.

Our dive teacher had also recommened we stop at the Daintree Ice Cream Company. They make all their ice cream on site from tropical fruit grown in the area. It was very tasty - we sampled 4 flavours, one of which was made from a fruit that tasted like mocha.

We were so pumped when we finally arrived in Cape Trib, a very small town consisting really only of a handful of stores and resorts. Here, the Daintree rainforest slopes down to meet the ocean, with just a slim patch of beach in between during low tide. Apparently, David Attenborough (of Planet Earth fame), thinks of this as one of the most magical places on the planet. We booked in at the Cape Trib Beach House, and got a steal of a deal on a double room with an ensuite bathroom. Our room was a big, wooden cottage only a few metres from the water with a big covered verandah, and surrounded on all sides by the rainforest.

After a quick swim in the pool and a walk on the small beach, we cooked dinner in the communal kitchen before the sun went down. As soon as the dark set in, the forest around our hut came alive with the symphony of it's inhabitants. Mostly repitles and amphibians we figured, the noises we at the same time startling and entertaining. Either way, they blended nicely to create nice background noise to fall asleep to.

For our only full day in the rainforest, we had big plans to get out and see the area by means of hiking and kayaking. The weather had some other plans for us. It poured, ALL day. Any time we'd think it was slowing down and start getting ready to head out, the sky would open again and make us change our minds. Resigned, we spent a very relaxing day at the resort. We sat on the verandah for awhile and listened to the driving rain, we ate, and we read.

Sunday morning, we were rewarded with a bit of sun poking through the trees. After breakfast, we packed up and drove into town to rent a sea kayak. By the time we were getting into the kayak, the sky was blue and looking clear on the horizon. The guy renting the kayak to us was a bit cautious and leery about renting to us because a 4.5 metre long saltie (salt water croc) had been spotted in his area the day before. We were setting out at high tide and apparently, that is when the crocs take to the open water to swim from creek to creek. This definitely worried me a bit, but he decided we were experienced enough paddles to handle the responsibility. He gave us some pointers on how to spot a croc and what to do if it came near us. He said most likely it would just swim by, but if it's tail was up, it was warning us to leave it alone. He intructed us on slapping our paddles loudly against the water to scare it away if it became aggressive - a tactic I wasn't super confident with in a 3 metre boat facing a 4.5 metre croc!

The kayaking was exceptional; the rainforest came right down to the water's edge and the reef was not too far from the land. Over the reef, we did spot some sea turtles poking their head above water, but the slightly choppy water made it hard to see too far into the reef. We never did see our croc, but we did see quite a number of croc-shaped logs bobbing near the surface!

We headed back south after a short stop in the Daintree Village. We detoured again to the Mossman Gorge to cool off and had a great beack walk in Port Douglas as we approached Cairns. Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas allows you to walk way out on the beach at low tide right up to old coral from an old reef. And, we did finally see a croc on the banks of one of the creeks we crossed on our way back to the city. He was quite far away from us but definitely a croc!

Back in Cairns, we checked back into the Nomad's hostel, had dinner at their bar and signed up for the Sunday night trivial game. We put a team in with us and an English friend, Mikey. It was great fun and Mark and I cleaned up on the travel/geography questions! We did win a pitcher of beer for answering one spot quesiton correctly, although our team came in 2nd place overall. Not bad but we wanted to win!