Into the Daintree and beyond

After our long and mostly sleepless night, we had started the day by making some breakfast in the communal kitchen at the campsite. After some toast and a coffee, it was time to hit the road and wind the windows down, allowing a very welcome breeze to flow in to the van as we went.

Our plan for the day was to aim for the most northern point of our trip, the Daintree Rainforest. On a map, it is a little was north of Cairns, just short of Cape Tribulation. The journey was picturesque and took us through more sugar cane fields before turning off down in to the quiet roads leading to the Daintree River. We weren't quite sure what we would find at the river, nor if we are being honest, exactly where we would find it.

We were a little surprised to find that the road eventually wound its way right to the banks of the river. There were two options - to go across on the ferry, or turn around and head somewhere else! After initially hesitating, we decided we may as well pay the fee and cross the river - we were only here the once!
The ferry was cable drawn from side to side and was a flat drive-on, drive-off format. As it docked a small ramp came down which bridged the gap from the land to the boat, and the campervan bumped down on to the ferry and drove along to the far end as we were first in line. The crossing over the crocodile-infested (though we saw none) river took only a matter of minutes as it wasn't that wide. There were a few small private leisure boats around and a couple of small commercial companies moored at the side that offered crocodile spotting cruises of the Daintree.

One such company was the Daintree River Train, a bizarre looking contraption that consisted of a naff boat towing a string of other unstable-looking craft. Looking at it from the safety of the ferry, it appeared as though using the River Train would only marginally increase your chances of surviving a river crossing on board than if you'd swam across!

Once we reached the other side, we left the ferry with as little fuss as when we'd boarded and headed in to the forest on the narrow road. We were now though at the front of all the traffic from the ferry, even though it was only about 8 vehicles, but they all seemed to be locals in a hurry who didn't find the twisty turning roads with dips, ridges and sheer drops nearly as scary as they ought to. Rather than race them, we opted to pull in and let them charge on ahead. This also gave us the chance to take it slow and look at some of the scenery within the forest.

Around 15 minutes in to the forest, we suddenly spotted a sign in the middle of a hairpin bend that pointed to a scenic lookout, so we just about managed to turn in time for the car park. The views from the lookout were phenomenal, with rainforest stretching for many miles, only appearing to come to an end when the sea of green met the crystal waters of the Coral Sea in the distance.

After a few photos, we headed further in to the forest and found the Daintree Discovery Centre which housed a variety of rainforest activities including an interactive centre to learn about wildlife of the Rainforest, different walking circuits, and the recently award-winning Canopy Tower.

After paying our backpacker admission fee, we were handed a walkie-talkie each and a souvenir booklet. The man informed us that when we walked around the centre there would be various numbers in two different colours corresponding to the booklet or the walkie-talkie to give us more information.

We set about on the aerial walkway that provided fantastic views of the Rainforest, gradually taking you higher and higher up in to the trees. Each commentary on the walkie-talkie gave us a brief history of wildlife or plants that we were passing at the time. You could listen to as many as you wanted or none if you preferred just taking in the scenery at your leisure. We were glad we listened to most of the commentaries though because one of them told us about the dangers of Australia's flightless bird, the cassowary (that could be found in this area), and what to do to prevent the wild bird from attacking!

At the end of the first walkway, we stopped to have a brief look round at the interactive centre which housed different activities, video presentations and games. Round the corner from this way a reptile centre which had pythons and different lizards in. Thankfully they were behind glass!

Next it was time to climb the 23m (76 feet) tall Canopy Tower. It is the first one of its kind in Australia and lets you see the Rainforest on different levels, from the forest floor right up the upper canopy. It didn't feel very safe to be honest and seemed to be swaying quite a lot (we later found out this was because it is protected for cyclone). Each level we reached provided a whole new view of the Rainforest around us. By the time we reached the top of the tower, we were glad of a sit down to admire the beautiful view and sounds of the Daintree.

After enjoying another two circuits of walking that taught us about extinct animals, we were ready to head back to the van to grab ourselves some lunch.
After a quick stop at an ice-cream factory, we decided we would head to the area known as The Atherton Tablelands which was further inland in hope of it being a little cooler so we could get a good night sleep.

We were relieved to find a nice campsite with proper pitches when we arrived at Lake Tinaroo Campsite. We had the pick of all the powered sites so found ourselves a nice big concrete pitch close to all the amenities. The man who checked us in, Ted, was really nice and funny (a Grandad type of figure) so we warmed to him straight away.

For dinner we attempted to cook some kebabs we had picked up from Woolworths but they wouldn't cook properly so we just nibbled away at our salad and barbequed corn on the cob. We will stick to our BBQ combo pack from now on.

The lady next to us in the kitchen was facing a similar problem with cooking her food. She had about 30 sausages and 15 steaks cooking - she must have been feeding a small army but nobody was there helping her so we chatted away to her. Joining us for dinner was a range of wildlife that just hovered around the picnic benches hoping to be fed.

Fortunately, the night was a lot colder than our night in Port Douglas and we happily nodded off to sleep within minutes.

We woke up early and got ready for the day ahead by looking in reception for some local attractions. Armed with our Lonely Planet guide, we headed to a museum and shop called the Coffee Works located in the town of Mareeba. Loving coffee, it was obvious choice for Rich. Rach was happy to go too as there was a chocolate shop!

Dubbed as the 'Disneyland for Coffee', the Coffee Works exhibition allows guests to have unlimited coffee, liqueurs and flavoured chocolate! You can spend your whole day there if you want!

We learnt about the origins of coffee before being allowed to taste 21 different coffees, 6 flavoured coffees, 4 tea flavours, 3 liquors and 12 different chocolate flavours! The coffee certainly kept Rich wide awake for driving. Rach tried some flavoured coffee but decided coffee is still not her cup of tea so she stuck to the flavoured tea and chocolate liquors.

The museum was rather strange if we are honest. It contained coffee machines from all over the world from years ago to the present day. Like the Daintree Discovery Centre, we were given walkie-talkies that provided us with a commentary from the owner of the exhibits.

The museum was split into different sections and concentrated on different themes or countries. Obviously a lot of time and effort had been put into making the exhibition as interesting as possible. There was a unique American display of coffee pots that was arranged like a beauty pageant. All the pots had different sashes on, such as Miss Rhode Island etc. An interactive speaker asked the pots different questions on why they should become 'Miss Coffee Pot'. It was very bizarre.

There were also coffee pots that were supposed to have been used by the Queen and this display showed a cartoon picture of the Queen with her beloved Corgis which 'spoke' to you as you pressed the button. It wasn't the most convincing British accent! After the 'Queen' had talked about her coffee pot, the lights faded and the other side of the room lit up presenting a picture of another Queen who consequently started arguing with our Queen about who's coffee is better - slightly strange to say the least!

Despite this, it was quite interesting to see the collection of 2000 artefacts. There was also a section dedicated to tea.

Throughout the museum tour, you were allowed to leave and go have some more coffee and chocolate and nobody was there to monitor how much you were taking so we piled up our plastic bowls with delicious chocolates that were in the shape of coffee beans. There were numerous flavours such as the traditional ones - white, milk, dark etc. These were joined by more daring flavour like chilli flavoured chocolate and lime and cracked pepper flavour (which was really nice).
After the tour we had another quick drink and got some more chocolates before having a quick look around the gift shop that had a range of items from clothes to household items and, of course, chocolates and coffee.

The chocolate shop was lovely especially as we are close to Christmas. There was a massive chocolate Christmas tree that looked too delicious to eat. After devouring lots of chocolate in the museum, we resisted the temptation to buy any more and set off to find somewhere else to explore before heading back to the campsite.

By the time we got there, the rain had begun to fall and so we decided to grab some dinner from the on-site takeaway. We headed up shortly before it was due to close and the ladies had already begun to clean the grills and oven. Rather than making them use them again, we opted to get some popcorn chicken and potato wedges as they were already cooked in a hot counter at the front of the takeaway. Presumably as a way of thanking us for not making them cook anything, they ended up giving us all our food for free which was handy! It was really tasty too, and so we returned to the van full and with the same amount of money as we left it with!

That was that for another day, and we settled down to another nice, cool and comfortable sleep!