We travelled in a four wheel drive bus further up the coast to the Mossman Gorge for a guided walk through the world heritage rainforest.
Our guide talked us through all the trees and plants, as well as some of the wildlife that inhabits the rainforest.
I was even persuaded to lick the backside of an ant!! It was very sour and it numbed my tongue for a while (will add phot later when I get it from Carolyn)
We followed the Captain Cook highway to the majestic Daintree river where we went on a one hour cruise along the river.
We spotted crocodiles on the bank and many wildlife birds and frogs.
We learnt about the Mangroves that lined the bank of the river and their importance to the fish and wildlife levels in the north of Australia. We then crossed the river on the famous cable ferry and drove onto Cape Tribulation beach.
It was here that Captain Cook ran aground in 1770. At the time he wrote in his diary this was when his trials and tribulations started, so that is why it is named Cape Tribulation.
This sign warns people not to feed the Cassowary. They are vital forthe ecosystem. They eat certain foods that can only germinate once they have passed through their intestinal system.They then spit them out and they grow in the forests. They are native to northern Australia and are endangered. A Cassowary can turn nasty so there are signs warning people not to feed them. As well as signs that show what happens if you run over one.
We stayed at the YHA , Crocodylus. It was a pretty scary but exciting experience.
The hut we stayed in is literally in the middle of the rainforest. It is a wooden structure with a tent over it and lino flooring.
We also had a shower and toilet, we would never have plucked up the courage to go outside at night to go to the loo!!!. They told us not to have any foodstuff in our room because the wildlife would break in to get it..You can imagine how edgy that made us feel, because the wildlife was so noisy and we did not have a clue what was out there!!
Especially when we saw the patches sewn around the bottom of the tenting where animals had previously bitten their way in! Carolyn also spotted that there was a big gap at the back of the hut where one section of the tent is just left to hang down, I kept checking that no snakes had slithered up into the gap at regular intervals all night. The noises of the animals around was deafening at times.The YHA was very remote, which was great, so we had a meal at the restaurant section of the hostel, it was good home cooking, we even had crumble for pudding! Later on we played pool and darts with some of the other people. We also polished off a couple of bottles of wine , hoping that would give us Dutch courage to sleep better!!!!!
All night we kept waking up saying"What is that??" and sitting up in bed. We also laughed a lot at how rediculously scared we were!
We did manage to get some sleep, but Carolyn says she spent hours watching frogs sliding down the top of the tent !!!
The next morning we hired bikes and rode to Cows beach. We were going along merrily when Carolyn shouted "Snake!!!!" I nearly fell off my bike!!! but managed to peddle round it very very quickly. It was still there when we cycled past a few hours later and we noticed that it had been run over by a since we spotted it.
I has a swim in the pool at the YHA and we chilled for most of the day.
That night we took a three hour guided tour in the rainforest.We were given special lamps to shine up in the trees and bushes to search for creatures to talk about. Both of us were petrified at first. But by the end we were so busy trying to find creatures, that we overcame the fear and had a fantastic time.The guide called 'Possum', made it so interesting, he told us so much about the creatures in the forest and what noises they made.
When we finally went to bed that night I slept really well because I understood a lot more about what creatures and animals made a lot of the noises. I just told myself to sleep and not to get all gittery ...it seemed to work. Carolyn on the otherhand hardly slept a wink.The next day we were picked up by Adventure North Travel to continue our journey in a 4wheel drive vehicle to Cooktown..... the last frontier of North Queensland!. (well that is what the brochure said!)
You can only go along this route in a 4WD because there terrain is so tough. The drive through the world heritage listed area was beautiful. We went over rugged mountain ranges and river crossings. We stopped for lunch at the Lions Den , one of north Queensland's oldest running bush pubs(est 1875). We visited the mysterious black mountains steeped in Aboriginal legend about people dying and disappearing!. We went up to Grassy hill to enjoy a three hundred and sixty degree panoramic view of Cooktown and the Endeavour river.(Named after Captain Cook's ship!)
We stopped for two nights at Pams YHA. It was a strange place with possums and birds roaming free. It had the potential to be a fabulous hostel with swimming pool and ornate gardens but it was very shoddy and dirty which was a shame.
The first night we went out to find somewhere to eat and everywhere was shut. It was like a ghost town. All we could find open was the local bowling club. Thankfully the food was good and we chatted to some other tourists.
It is a strange place!! We hardly saw anyone on the streets, and those you did see looked very odd. The sea and mountain views are beaufiful so that made up for the lack of locals. I have to say I am so glad that I ventured up this far to see a different way of life. The local mines are all that keeps the economy going in this place. We visited the captain Cook museum, which is housed in a former convent building.It was abondoned in the war and used by US soldiers before a museum was established in it. Cooktown is the first place that white settles established a community in Australia. In its heyday during the goldrush there were thousands of people living there. You would never guess that nowadays. We wandered round but there was not that much to see , it was rather like a ghost town. We kept laughing at all the antiquated signs and shops. There is a large Aboriginal communitiy in this part of the world. Sadly many of them are alcoholics and they are trying to do more to sort out the crime and unemployment among their communities. Many just sit around under the trees drinking. We were afraid walking around in the dark, it was very ery. I have to say two days was long enough to stay in Cooktown!!! We were glad when the bus came to take us back to Cairnes!!
