Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia
Saturday, November 29, 2008
After leaving Port Douglas we were heading north towards Cape Tibulation. We stopped off along the way to see Mossman Gorge which was quite scenic. There were people in swimming in the gorge and it would have been nice to get in to cool down but we didn't have swimwear with us so we just took a few pictures and got back on the road again. When we got to the Daintree River we had to cross it on a cable ferry and after we crossed it the scenery on the way to Cape Tribulation was beautiful. There was rainforest to the left and white sandy beaches with turquiose water to the right. There were signs all over the road to be care ful of the cassowaries. We never even heard of a cassowary until we went to the safari park in Bali. They are these huge birds, like osterich or emu's, they've loads of really thick black feathers and a weird thing like a black wig that sits on top of their heads and from their necks up they are a red and blue colour. They are a really endangered species and we tried to spot one for the whole drive up to no avail.
When we got to Cape Tribulation we went for a walk on the beach. The beach there was really nice, but no stinger net so no swimming. We were thinking of doing a couple of activities while we were there like horseriding on the beach or a guided rainforest walk but everything seemed to be overpriced compared to other places we've seen. So we left the next morning taking in all the beautiful scenery along the way and about halfway to the Daintree River I spotted an elusive cassowary up a side road. I jammed on the breaks, not realising there was a car right behind me but luckily we were going quite slow and he reacted in time. We turned around and just watched the cassowary for five minutes or so then made our way to Hartleys Corcodile Adventures just north of Cairns.
We got there at about 10am and started the day with a boat trip on the lagoon where the driver feeds the crocodiles pieces of meat and they jump up beside the boat to snap it from him. After that we went to see the crocoldiles being fed, satwater crocodiles first, then freshwater ones. The handlers were very good and full of stories and facts about the crocs. After the feeding we walked around the safari part of the centre. We saw, wallabies, koalas, lizards, more crocs and a cassowary (not as good as the one we saw in the wild earlier!).
At lunchtime we ate some crocodile which was actually really tasty. Texture of chicken, taste of fish! Then we went on a tour of the crocodile farm which was really informative and then onto see a snake show where the handler had the most venomous snake in the world. They measure how venomous a snake is by taking one mililitre of venom and seeing how many mice it can kill, this one can kill 50,000 mice with a drop smaller than a raindrop! After the snake show it was the crocodile attack show which was similar to what Steve Irwin used to do, a bloke getting into the crocs enclosure and teasing it with food to make it do death rolls and head shakes and stuff. Overall we really enjoyed they day, good to see the animals and educational too.
We stayed the night in a small town called Atherton in the middle of the Atherton Tablelands, an area just inland from Cairns full of mountains, hills, rainforest and rivers. First thing the next morning we set off for the Waterfall Circuit seeing four of the most beautiful waterfalls in Australia along the way and an old volcanic crater at Hypipamee National Park too. The best waterfall was probably Milaa Milaa falls and there were loads of people in swimming. We only went in knee deep though coz the water was freezing! We got to Mission Beach that evening.
