Hello again people, I told you I would be more on the ball with my updates this time round!! This week I have mainly been working, but I did take some time off on Monday and Tuesday to head up the coast to Cape Tribulation. Anne and I travelled up with a tour company called Jungle Tours, and I had a brilliant time! The journey there was made in a small coach and took about five hours, including drink breaks and excursions. As we moved up the coastal roads, the change from urban to natural became increasingly pronouced. Within in an hour of leaving Cairns we were driving literally right next to white beaches and blue seas, and had seen wallabies and sea eagles.

Our first proper stop on the tour was at the cable ferry crossing for the Daintree River. While the bus was taken over on the ferry, we spent 45 minutes touring up and down the river on a wildlife cruise. We did not see much, but what we did see was excellent. The highlights were a large female crocodile resting on the shore, and the head of a juvenile male (he was not decapitated, the rest of him was under water!!). It was well worth doing in my opinion. We then jumped back on the bus and continued the trip.

The next stop was at a rainforest boardwalk which led our intrepid group deep into damp, dark trees. This was again an excellent experience because at the area we were exploring the rainforest had grown up around a mango swamp, so we got to view two rare habitats at once. Sightings included lizards, crabs and (unfortunately for Anne) spiders, supplemented with a wide range of flora. We spent about 30 minutes here, and then moved onto Cape Tribulation itself.

Cape Tribulation is a very small place indeed, featuring 200 residents, three hostels and a shop. We were booked into Cape Tribulation Beach House, which was more a resort than a hostel, and therefore we had a very nice room. The best thing was that, unlike the Cairns Beach House, this hostel was a short step from a pristine white beach. When we explored the beach, we were the only people there!! The area's reputation for being a beautiful jack of all trades is well deserved, as in our trek along the beach we saw the reef, the rainforest and the mountains. We also found wild coconuts, but unfortuantely all the ripe ones had already been consumed by a combination of animals and humans. After this we headed back to the hostel to play monopoly (I WON!!!) and have dinner, which although pricey, was very very good quality. Then it was an early night to prepare for our return trip to cairns the next day.

We had the morning off from the actual tour, so Anne and I decided to take advantage of this and book a horseriding excursion through the rainforest and along the beach. This was really really good, we even got to canter our horses along the beach front, very romantic comedy style. We also stopped for a mid morning swim in a beautifully remote fresh water creek. My horse was jet black and called midnight which suited me just fine. All in all, it was a great start to the day, even though I had to get up early on my day off.

When we returned to the hostel, we had time for a shower before we reboarded the Jungle Tours bus to go back to Cairns. On the way home we stopped off at Mossman Gorge, which was another astoundingly pretty (and cold!) swimming hole, this time situated within a steep gorge and featuring waterfalls. Our next stop was at Port Douglas, the major settlement in this area. This place was very quaint, but I got the impression that you would not want to stay there long as it could get rather boring rather quick hehe. It did have a 49 flavour ice cream parlour though, which went down very well in the mid afternoon heat!

After this, we made one more unofficial stop to pick fresh mangos (which were fantastic!!) and then we were back in Cairns. It was a very good excursion and I would reccomend that anyone up this way in Australia should try to find time to escape up the coast to the more natural areas, even if just for a day tour!

Speak soon!