Another massive gap between updates/entries. Argh. I put it down to being a combination of busy, lazy and distracted. Onward, ho!
You know what’s bullshit about Cairns? The fact that you can wake up at 7:00am and it’s still bullshit hot.
This is where I shall introduce our tour guide for this particular day, Massimo. Or as I liked to call him, Massimo the Magnificent, because he looked like a magician. After every point he made, I half expected him to produce a rabbit from a tree or convey information to us via swooping hand gestures to give said information that added air of mystery.
There were only six of us on this particular tour, which was an ideal number because we were able to ask questions at just about any point of the day.
Our destination was the Daintree Rainforests, but there were a number of stops along the way.
Port Douglas was our first stop. We didn’t really see a lot of it, but we did get to see a beach with massive stinger nets. We even a brief history lesson about the story of Christopher Skase, which obviously I know about, but none of the others did.
Mossman Gorge was next. Another beautiful location with canopies so dense at points the only humidity you felt was generated by the rainforest itself. Vines and epiphytes aplenty, hanging and sprouting from trees, untamed and unrestricted. Salty white apples that are indigenous to the rainforest up there were laying about, but I didn’t dare try one. Thanks to heavy rain over the two days before, sediment from the mountain ranges mixed with the water in the usually clear river, making everything murky, which was a pity.
This day consisted of amazing nature displays followed by equally amazing views. I present to you, the view from Alexandra Lookout.
I’m not sure whether you’ll be able to see it in the picture (try clicking on it to enlarge it!) but you can actually see a sand barge that connects to the Great Barrier Reef in this picture. The amazing thing about that is – at low tide – you can walk out along it. I imagine this would make an ideal place to film a video clip for a soppy ’80s love song.
After more driving, we were due for a change of pace. This came in the form of a boat cruise down the Daintree River. Before hopping on the boat, the Crazy Canadian experienced lamingtons for the first time. Fear not, Aussies, they received the nod of approval.
The boat ride itself was 60-ish minutes long. A lot of that time was spent building up the crowd’s “That Could Be a Croc!” anticipation. We finally got to see one, a rather small one at about 1.5m long. We also witnessed a very tiny one, probably no more than 60cm long, resting on a log. There were also some really large, colourful mangrove trees on the boat ride.
Back into the van, and we were off to ‘On the Turps’ for lunch. Awesome name for a restaurant, I thought. Sitting down and eating lunch beside a shallow, peaceful creek that is less than a minute’s walk away while Ulysses butterflies flutter about carelessly?
Paint me relaxed. I could’ve stayed there the entire day.
The cool waters of the lake were a nice distraction from the 30-something degrees, which came with its very own turtle that was happy enough chilling out on a log I was sitting on. The nature in Cairns is similar to that of its pace and people, it’ll move when it needs to.
Bidding farewell to my shelled companion, our next destination was Cape Tribulation. There’s one particularly large and awesome vine that had enough durability to hold up the Crazy Canadian. The lookout point holds one particular treasure for your eyes, the water there was amazing, a clearly distinguishable difference between the green- and blue-tinted areas of the water. It’s very discernible to the eye, but unfortunately my camera couldn’t quite pick up the difference all that well.
One of the more fun diversions for the day came when we stopped at the Daintree Ice-Cream Factory. They have a relatively large plantation of rare and exotic fruits, including Durian and Jack.
They have a four taste sample ice-cream you can buy for $6. The flavours I tasted on this particular day were blueberry, mango, wattletree and soursop. All were delicious, but particular mention goes to wattletree. That was just something else altogether.
Right. Now comes the final stop for the day. The Daintree Rainforest Discovery Centre.
If you should ever visit Cairns, this is the place I would highly recommend going to. You’ll only need to spend an hour or so there in total, but it is just so effing amazing that I can’t help but highly recommend you visit there.
They have a five-storey high platform that showcases each layer of the rainforest canopy. You can stop on each level, take a seat and drink in the gorgeous views. I could post the view from each level, but I’m just going to let you see the picture that has been my laptop wallpaper since returning from the trip.
The Crazy Canadian took the audio tour guide route, while I ran around like a madman for an hour just buzzing about to everything I could feast my eyes on while finding areas that I could relax in for longer periods of time. One place I found particularly soothing/relaxing was the shade of this enormous strangler fig tree.
When I say enormous, that photo shows easily less than half of the tree. The remainder actually flows right over your head and continues on. I spent some time trying to find the end of it, but failed to do so. The chair there was even laid out like a deckchair so I took full advantage and laid on my back, staring into the canopy and following what I could of the strangler fig.
I’d recommend clicking on those last two photos and enlarging them. I’m not quite sure the snapshots really do any of this justice, though.
The journey back to Cairns was littered with natural wonders – sugar canes taller than me, a field full of wild kangaroos, heavy tropical rain and a storm that produced some melancholic clouds.
Next time – the Great Barrier Reef and the end.