We have been out of range for the last few days so we have a bit to catch up.
Huh! The lottery win will not buy us the house in Port Douglas! 14 dollars is not quite enough although it did buy us another ticket. Maybe 3rd time lucky.
Moving on from Mossman we went a very short distance to Wonga Beach, from where it was easy to visit Daintree. The village itself is tiny, on the Daintree River and in the heart of the rainforest and National Park which is just referred to as "The Daintree". We did a river cruise, which we did many years ago, but we never tire of this kind of scenery and of course the purpose of the trip is to see as much wildlife as possible. Crocs of all ages and sizes were in abundance, and we also saw the beautiful azure kingfisher, mangrove herons, brahminy kites and great egrets. All of a sudden a snake leapt off a tree and swam across in front of the boat. Although it was non-venomous (a yellow-bellied tree snake) we were quite relieved that it did not do as our tour guide said it might, and climb on the boat. It was a super trip.
Back at the caravan park the next day, Warwick had a close encounter with another yellow-bellied tree snake on the way to the beach.
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| A 5-metre male |
After two nights at Wonga Beach we crossed on the Daintree Ferry to make our way to Cape Tribulation. The last time we came this way, this road was restricted to 4WD vehicles so we were particularly thrilled that this time we could get up to the cape. On the way we visited the Daintree Discovery Centre, one of the best interpretive centres of its kind we have yet seen. A high tower got us right into the canopy of the rainforest and a booklet and sound system explained everything very clearly.
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| The Daintree Ferry |
The Cape Tribulation caravan park, "Paradise Found", was delightful and made even more so when the first night we found ourselves next door to Tim, Bec and the kids again. We were again able to compare experiences and make recommendations to each other. We had booked for 3 nights but ended up adding one. An interesting diversion was the arrival of two huge vehicles, one with Dutch plates and the other with Belgian ones, a very unusual sight in Australia. These belonged to two couples who had driven across from Europe, quite independently. They found each other on the internet and they meet up from time to time. We had a fascinating conversation with them. It makes our adventure quite tame by comparison.
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| Our European adventurers |
Cape Tribulation was the end of the road as far as our Beast was concerned, but we were rather keen to see at least part of the 4WD Bloomfield Track which continues from there. We therefore took a half-day (5 hour) tour and were lucky enough to be the sole participants. The tour guide was delightful, and he made his tour interesting, informative and at the same time quite informal.
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| Mike and his 4WD Toyota Prado |
The gravel road seemed quite inoffensive at first and we both wondered what all the 4WD fuss was about but it fairly quickly deteriorated and became very obviously unsuitable for anything else. The reason for warnings to pregnant women against doing the tour were quite clear!! Apart from the potholes and ruts, the road went through creeks and it was all great fun, especially being driven by someone else! Part of the tour was to the Bloomfield Falls, or Wujal Wujal in the Aboriginal language and we were handed over to an Aboriginal tour guide for that part of it. She was also delightful and informative and we learned a lot about the Aboriginal Community of Wujal Wujal, a successful community and one of many which has renounced alcohol, the cause of many problems amongst Aboriginals.
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| Wujal Wujal in the winter. In the summer "Wet" the falls will be the whole width of the rock face |
Mike, our tour guide, had also arranged to meet up with Gary, who does the Cooktown newspaper, and who was hoping to see and photograph a crocodile. Nothing daunted, we set off in search of a suitable croc and were rewarded with a 5-metre beast which was first of all sunning himself on some rocks but then slid off into the water, showing us just how long he was. We did not hang about on the bank for long in case he decided to come out on our side of the river! Recounting this tale at the caravan park later, we were told this croc is called "Spartacus". We find it amusing that every creek has its resident croc and the locals all know their names. They consider them their "pets". We feel safer with dogs and cats.
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| Spartacus swimming in the Bloomfield River |
The Australian sense of humour is incorrigible and we were highly amused by what has almost become a "logo" for the area. Someone at some time has converted two roadsigns which are together on the same pole, warning of cassowaries on the road and speed bumps to slow people down because of the possibility of cassowaries into this:-
There are T-shirts, and every imaginable souvenir with this on them. So funny.
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