Cape Tribulation - rainforest and reef

As Al was having a great time on his diving course, I decided to take a little day trip of my own, to Cape Tribulation – the very north of the east coast, were the rainforest meets the reef. I jumped on my tour bus with about 16 other young people and headed north. The journey took us past sugar cane plantations, past stunning coastal scenery and past the tablelands – large mountains covered in rainforest.

Our guide seemed pretty keen to give us all the crocodile stories he could - little old ladies going for a morning dip in the sea only to discover a large 'log' floating next to her stuck in the stinger net (jellyfish barrier)... and men walking their dogs next to the local pond and only returning home with the lead. Kind of puts you off swimming anywhere.

Our first main stop was at the Daintree River – a large, salt water, crocodile-infested river about 150kms north of Cairns. We hopped out and awaited our croc-watching tour. We were welcomed with a cup of hot tea (seriously wierd – it was around 35c and extremely humid – whoever said tea cools you down started one of the greatest myths of all time), so after we had all melted from the tea we boarded our croc-spotting boat, cameras at the ready and off we set. There were a few calls of “crocodile!” when in fact it was “a log putting on a very wooden performance” as our guide said. And after hovering around several mangrove trees and dark looking corners we eventually found the big guy – 3 metre croc nick-named 'Fat Albert' (kind of takes away the scare-factor doesn't it?). He was hiding under a tree and everything apart from his head was submerged. This is because they need to cool down in the heat. Apparently the best time to come is May/June when it's cooler (25c) and the crocodiles are sunbathing on the banks and rocks – you can see around 12 in a 30 minute boat ride. People have seen the adult male crocs devouring whole cow carcasses and fighting for territory on the river. There are 3 large adult males on the river (we were lucky enough to see one) and loads of females and younger ones too. We saw two crocs – the other was a bit smaller but we could see him more clearly on the bank of the river – I spotted that one! As we disembarked on the other side of the river our guide told us a story about one tourist, a Belgian, who had been so annoyed on not seeing any crocodiles that he decide to walk up to the waters edge with his camera and splash around. He was then attacked by a massive crocodile who took a huge chunk out of his leg and luckily he was rescued before it got him into a death roll. But anyway I don't have much to worry about because apparently Germans are the crocs' favourite dish – (this may be because it is the Germans who are most likely to camp or hang out by the waters edge?) so all you Germans out there beware!

On the other side of the river we continued north in the van. The forest was a lot more dense now and the sounds and humidity really reminded me of the Amazon – although we were still driving on a paved road and there were little houses in the forest every few hundred metres. So a lot more developed. We stopped at a little walkway which took us into the forest and around the mangrove swamps. These were amazing. The swamps were vast and the sun shining on them acted as a mirror, perfectly reflecting the shapes of the trees. Apparently the rainforest in this area is the oldest in the world at 20 million years old, it also has a unique wildlife descended from the prehistoric times when Australia was joined to Asia. Just one hectare of rainforest hosts around 100 different species of plant life... and lots of spiders!: The guide found some green ants and some of us were brave enough to try them – they tasted of really acidic, like concentrated lime – it reminded me of when I was little and used to stick my tongue onto batteries... if anyone else was crazy enough to do this then you will know perfectly what I mean. Anyway my tongue went sort of numb for the rest of the day, but apparently there are chefs out there who actually cook with them and our guide recommended barramundi baked with green ants, or a salad with green ants instead of balsamic. We also passed a large tree, it had been strangled by vines and they had only left a sort of shell of the tree. I was hoping to see a casowary – these huge prehistoric birds exist only in the rainforest of Australia and Papa New Guinea. Unfortunately they are on the critically endangered list and only 1,200 of one species survives in Australia. They actually help to build the rainforest as they semi-digest and disperse seeds from the trees in a special way that fertilises the ground. There are road signs everywhere warning about them.

Eventually we reached Cape Tribulation, so called because when Captain James Cook landed here in the Endeavour (after being stuck on the Great Barrier Reef for a few months) he found it to be a rather unwelcoming place, what with all the crocodiles, sharks, spiders, snakes, etc, so he named it this. Nearby there is also Mount Pity and Mount Sorrow... a bit of theme here... our guide said that most Australian's put it down to Capt Cook being a 'wingeing pom'. We stopped at a backpackers hostel for lunch and I took the time to run down to the beach. It was really beautiful. The sand was pure white and the rainforest fell all the way from the mountains to the beachside. The sea was a beautiful aqua-marine turquoise but unfortunately you are not able to swim here in the summer months because of jellyfish.

On the way back we nearly ran over a huge monitor lizard. He was standing in the middle of the road inspecting his friend who had been flattened to a pancake. They aren't much cleverer than chickens though and instead of running to the other side of the road he ran between our wheels. I was sure I felt a bump but when the driver got out to check there was nothing there.

We crossed the Daintree river again on a small ferry. Our guide told us that up until a few years ago if you wanted to join the Cape Trib community you had to swim across the river as an initiation test. That was until one girl was eaten by a crocodile as she attempted the swim – pretty stupid really.

So we headed next to the Mossman Gorge where we had time for a quick dip in the crystal brown waters – it had just rained so the leaves had turned the water a pleasant dark orange colour – but it was perfectly clean so I jumped in. It was one of the best swims ever, in cool fresh water (no crocodiles), and just what I needed to cool down from the heat and humidity.

Just before we arrived at Cairns we stopped at Port Douglas, a very upmarket town, lots of 5-star resorts etc. It was nice but a little expensive for my backpacker budget. There was a nice view out to sea and a few hippy shops to browse round - including this one with a cassowary hanging out with rudolph:

It was a really great tour, our guide was really cool and the people were nice. And it was pretty cheap which is always a bonus. Cairns is such a cool place and I would love to stay longer, there is so much to do around here! But the Great Barrier Reef beckons and I met up with Al and his diving friends that evening to celebrate on land before heading out to the deep sea.