My (free) Daintree Aboriginal Tour

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  Mossman, Queensland, Australia
Tuesday, April 21, 2009

my original plan for the past weekend was to spend my first day exploring the Daintree Rainforest and then continue north up to Cooktown, which is pretty much the last "real" civilization on the east coast before getting into a sort of no-man's land on the York Peninsula. unfortunately the other three people that were scheduled on my tour cancelled at the last minute and so there weren't enough people to go. the tour operator felt so bad that i had essentially been  left "stranded" in the daintree on my first day (it's quite hard to get around cape trib without your own car, as everything is far apart) that she offered me a free ticket for their aboriginal tour. i figured, why not? and gratefully accepted. i had wanted to learn more about the true owners of the land and figured there was no better way to learn then from the aboriginies themselves. 

i was picked up in an oversized 4x4 safari tour van from my accomodation in Cairns at about 7 am and we headed to one of the northern beaches to pick up the other 6 people, a family, who were also joining the tour. coincidentally the family was a no-show and on any other day i'm sure the tour wouldn't have gone, but because i was on board the operator/owner gave us the go-ahead. it demonstrated what kind of business they were running and how much they truly cared about customer satisfaction. regardless, my day was awesome and i made sure to call up the tour manager and thank her after i was dropped back at my hostel at the end of the day.

the highlight of the day, for me, was our first activity which involved wading through the shallows of the mudflats and using a traditional aboriginal spear to catch mudcrab. our guide (or uh, my guide) was a man from the kuku-yalanji (sp?) tribe in what is now Mossman, and began by teaching me how to throw the spear properly and how to tell a female from a male mudcrab. i was a bit timid at first...spearing things isn't exactly my style, but i went with it and by the end of the hour i was throwing at anything that moved in the water. sadly, though not surprizingly, i didn't catch anything. my aboriginal guide and my tour guide both caught two large crabs though so we decided to move on into the mangroves that lined the flats and search for mussels and periwinkles. since it was low tide the mangroves were completely drained and we could walk right through the "forest"....although you still had to beware of sinking in the thick mud and stepping over the high mangrove roots. it was a very unique feeling: standing in the middle of this maze of roots and seeing nothing but mangrove trees. we managed to find a few mussels and snails so we made our way back to the aboriginal's house where his brother steamed them up and we had a proper seafood tasting. the aboriginals use very little seasoning so all we used to dip the meat in was fresh lime juice and the juice from these teeny little chili peppers---but man, was it good! i'd have to say the mussels were the best and held the most flavor, although the others felt the mudcrab was tops. i learned how his tribe, the kuku-yalanji eat pretty much anything that comes from the sea including sea turtle, which they have special permission from the goverment to hunt. i also learned about the different types of boomerang they use to hunt and for which occasion/purpose they use each for. it was all very fascinating.

after we had our fill we headed over to the daintree river to take a cruise in search of crocodiles. i had already done the cruise on my day trip through the daintree but it was pouring that day and today was sunny, so i was looking forward to seeing the rainforest in the sunshine. we did spot a good sized croc, a rusty kite, and lots of tree snakes so it was well-worth it.

lastly we went to a private property just north of the Daintree Village and hiked through what could possibly be my favorite part of the rainforest yet. it was magical! beautiful sunshine rays coming through the canopy...a peaceful river meandering through the woods down to the ocean....all culminating in a huge waterfall. Niau Falls as it's called, is named after the french couple that originally owned the land and is still privately owned to this day.

like i said before, it was an awesome day. not only had i basically had a private tour, but because i was seeing more than just your pretty tourist beaches and postcard-lined shops. i was seeing the real Australia, through the eyes of the true owners.

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Mt. Thorton-2nd wettest place in Oz.	rusty kite (a bird of prey), daintree river	view from the river boat	crikey!
she's a beaut!	mangroves along the river	tree snake	i see you!
daintree river	tree snake in river on the Niau property	i almost thought he was a stick!	hiking to the falls
the creek that runs down from the falls	my favorite part of the forest	magical	so pretty
another part of the creek	getting closer....	ta-da!	me at Niau Falls
on the way back to Cairns

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