Venture to Australia

Trip to Cairns – Day 3: Cape Tribulation, Daintree Rainforest Tour (Part I)

This was by far the longest touring day; 12 hours out on tour. We started with an early morning pickup, around 7:00am. We started out on the long drive out to Cape Tribulation; I think the drive was about an hour long. We made a quick stop at a lookout point to see the view of the Daintree River and some of the foliage of the rainforest.


We were then taken to an information centre in the rainforest where we had morning tea (cookies, tea, juice, etc.). Shortly after having tea we were given a brief history of the rainforest and its animals. We were then taken to a tower that allowed us to see the different levels of the rainforest. At each level the guide discussed the different types of plants and animals that are commonly found there.

It was a short walk back down to the base of the tower and onto a walk through the rainforest on raised platforms. It was all quite lush and green and we even saw a neat little spider that was camouflaged on one of the railings as we were nearing the end of the path. If you're not paying close attention the spider actually looks like an etching into the metal instead of a live creature.


At the end of the walk there was a little gift shop (as there are in many places in Cairns). This particular shop sold the usual stuffed koalas and kangaroos as well as assorted jams, dressings and spices.


After a few minutes it was a short drive to the ferry which took our whole bus (and several other cars) across the river to the other side; the whole trip took about a minute.


Once across the river we drove down a road where there is a famous piece of graffiti on a sign on the side of the road.


The sign originally depicted a warning about an upcoming speed bump and the sign below it is a picture of a cassowary. Similar to warnings of deer that cross the road, there are cassowaries that cross in that area and are often hit by cars.

We went to a lovely beach where the sand was packed perfectly flat and there were mangrove trees with their roots showing just above the sand. Our tour guide also introduced us to several of the different plants that grown near the water and showed that some of them are even edible.

People can swim in the water, but are advised to be careful during the summer months as there are box jellyfish in the water.

Lunch was served in the middle of the rainforest where there were several picnic tables setup.

It was quite tasty and it was included as part of the tour and included steak, sea bass, a type of Australian bread and several different kinds of salad.

For dessert we were treated to several different kinds of tropical fruits.


After lunch we went for a cruise up the Daintree River to hopefully spot some wildlife. This was the most disappointing part of the trip as we got stuck with another tour group of noisy Italians. They basically were loud and quite boisterous and scared off just about every kind of wildlife in the area. So all we saw were a few birds several metres away and a few tiny crocodiles sunning themselves in between the mangroves.

On our way back to Cairns we stopped by a small shop for afternoon tea; this time it was muffins instead of cookies though. The shop also sold souvenirs including Daintree Tea which is harvested and made right in the rainforest.

Just outside the shop was the most amazing and scary sight you can imagine. There were a bunch of trees growing in which you had to walk underneath to get to a clearing. Upon looking up you could see a set of webs that several spiders had woven. It was quite a unique sight to see as spiders are usually quite territorial.

posted by Compmouse @ 12/30/2005 08:45:00 PM