The next day was to involve a little more driving than we had been used to as we were heading as far north as you can go in a 2 wheel drive vehicle to Cape Tribulation and on the way we intended taking in some of the Daintree Rainforest. It is within the jungles of northern Queensland that they film "I'm a celebrity get me out of here" so we were keen to do a bit of exploring in the jungle ourselves to see if it is as scary as its made out to be! In order to access the national park you have to cross the Daintree River via a small ferry which turned out to be a floating platform that you drove on one side and off the other and the crossing took about 3 minutes! The first stop was Jindalba Rainforest Discovery Centre. Due to the obvious harsh nature and its many killer plants and animals you cant just start walking through the bush as you please so at the discovery centre they have built a multi layer boardwalk that allows you to walk through a small section of the rainforest in relative safety. As well as boardwalks through the ground and mid level forest there is also a 5 level tower which allows you to climb through the various levels ending the climb on an observation deck that looks right out over the top of the rainforest canopy. Along the way you have a guide handset and a booklet that talks you through your journey pointing out different areas of interest along the way. The idea behind the centre is to educate on the importance of the rainforest and what we should all be doing to protect it. The whole centre was amazing giving you so much information about how the plants have evolved, their poisonous or medicinal properties as well as the vast array of wildlife that can be found within the different levels of the jungle. There were three separate boardwalks all of which were amazing and having seen the rainforest on TV is was a fantastic experience to be in the oldest rainforest in the world! After the boardwalks you then ascend the viewing tower and whilst its not much fun in the blistering heat the view from the top is out of this world. Literally for miles all you can see is lush rainforest canopy with the occasional tree popping above the rest competing for sunlight it was an awesome sight. After we completed all of the trails around the rainforest it was lunch time so we decided to head further north to a beach called Cow Bay. As with all the beaches in the tropics there are stingers in the water and as there were no stinger nets we couldn't go for a swim however it was a beautiful, quiet spot for us to munch our ham sandwiches and apart from a couple of fishermen we were the only ones there! Armed with our new found knowledge of the rainforest from earlier we decided to take in a couple of self guided trails the first of which being the fan palm boardwalk. As the name would suggest it was an area of jungle filled with massive fan shaped palm leaves both high in the canopy as well as all around us at ground level. Visiting the guided trail in the morning was definitely the best thing we could have done as we were better able to better appreciate what we were seeing as we walked around. We were able to recognise some of the plants and structures we would otherwise have just walked past. The next trail was called the Marrdja botanical boardwalk which was to walk us through the rainforest to where the jungle meets water at the mangroves. We had both heard of mangrove forests before but didn't know what they were. It turns out it is one of the creepiest places I have ever been. Where the water has receded there are hundreds of black tree roots growing out of the ground it looked very inhospitable and the more we walked through these black protruding roots the more you felt you weren't supposed to be there and with only a tiny fence between you and the crocodile infested waters we certainly took that part of the boardwalk at a more urgent pace! Safely back at the van the last stop on our trip was the beach at Cape Tribulation. This is the farthest you can go up the east coast on a sealed road after this point the road is nothing more than a dirt track suitable only for 4WD vehicles. Unfortunately I didn't read the map correctly and we didn't stop in time so before we knew it we were bouncing about ridiculously on the "forbidden" dirt track! Once Michael had stopped yelling at me and I had stopped laughing at how ridiculous we must look we managed to get turned around but not without me first getting out the van to stop any traffic allowing us to perform a rather elegant if a little dusty 360! Once back on the right path we parked up in the township and walked through the forest to the beach. Again there were no stinger nets so we had a walk along the beach front before it was time to head back for the ferry as we were spending the night at Wonga Beach a small town just a few minutes from the ferry terminal.