Cape Tribulation and the Daintree

Holly and Georgia hired their Jucy van, we packed up the Airbnb and headed north. Kevin left us here to go see his parents who were staying in Port Douglas (though we would see him a couple more times over the next few days).

Our first stop was a bridge notorious for croc sightings but unfortunately the bridge had some road works and we didn’t see any crocs (we assume they were scared off from the roadworks).

Next we headed to Mossman Gorge. Rein left me with the ladies to head to camp so he could do some work on the car and we went for an explore. We did a beautiful rainforest hike followed by a swim in the river.

Our camp for the night was in the town of Daintree, situated on the Daintree River. The next morning we were up early to do a crocodile tour on the river. It was an overcast morning and we had the boat all to ourselves. We made our way down the river without spotting a single crocodile and the tour guide said that unfortunately as it was overcast, the crocs were less likely to be out sunning themselves on the banks. As we made our was back up river though, we were treated to a female croc swimming on the surface alongside the boat!

Back toward the dock, we were delighted to see two more crocs sunning themselves on the banks. Wild crocs - tick!

We made our way now to Daintree National Park, catching a ferry across the Daintree River to get there.

We spent the next few days hanging out, hiking and seeing the sights of Cape Tribulation. We did a night walk through the rainforest and did our part in reducing the cane toad population.

We also did a hike at Mount Sorrow which was the worst hike Rein and I had ever done. It was 8km return and 750m of elevation gain. It was steep and very muddy. Both myself and Georgia were sporting mild head colds and we battled leeches as we made our way to the top. Once at the top, we found the view almost entirely obstructed by trees which was uninspiring to say the least. Definitely not worth it. Rein took a bit of a nasty fall on the way down (he is ok, just bruised) and I got a leech just above my sock which i only noticed after it had filled up with so much blood that it was swinging around and whacking my leg with every step. It eventually had its fill and dropped off. Still very gross!

That night we treated ourselves to a cooked meal at the Sandbar where we all tried crocodile spring roles, ate wood fired pizzas and had a couple of cocktails.

The next day, the ladies had to drive back to Cairns to go home and we were headed north to do the Bloomfield Track and start our journey to the tip. The ladies were lucky to see two cassowaries crossing the road as they were leaving. We haven’t seen one yet but we are hoping to on our journey to the tip.