The Tropical Tour

We decided to complement Daniel’s ability to read and digest all the signs along the paths, info centers and lookouts with a guided tour of the Daintree Rainforest. We started in Mossman’s Gorge and got a view of a cool dragon lizard and crystal clear stream.

We tried a cruise along the Daintree River, in search of crocodiles in the wild, but only managed an egret and a few sun bird spotting.

We checked out the beach and “town” of Cape Tribulation, which is where the sealed (paved) road ends on the east coast of Australia. You can go on pretty much forever on an unpaved road to somewhere, if you so desire. Apparently the hole in Captain Cook's boat was the genesis for all the depressing names of places along this part of Queensland. Charlie was not affected in the same way and wrote (EILRAHC heart YLLOM) perfectly backwards in the sand.

Lunch included tips for mixing Vegamite with butter (not our only option, thank goodness – 3/5 of us didn’t even bother to try the tip), tasting the backside of an ant (again, 3/5 of us didn’t bother), and a swim in a secluded spot.

These strangler trees (really a fig tree) drop offshoot roots down from high branches and they twist around the original tree, eventually strangling it, so you have a series of roots that are hollow on the inside. This one is on one of the hikes we went on, where our guide Chris got out of the car first to see if the resident venomous snake was out and about. He's a "snake relocater" in his spare time, which provides no reassurance at all.

We saw cassowary droppings/scat/poo, but, alas, no cassowaries. They're considered a keystone animal in the forest because they eat huge amounts of fruits with seed and deposit the seeds in other parts of the forest for cross pollination. Some of the seeds will never germinate unless they've passed through the digestive system of the bird.

We ended the day at the Daintree Icecream Store, where you get four flavors in each bowl, of whatever fruit is ripe on their property that day. The Jakfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, weighing up to 80+ pounds. It's not too pretty to look out, but was very yummy in the ice cream. Wattle seed is the seed from a tree also and it tasted a little like coffee ice cream. Blueberry and Mango, not as exotic!

We arrived back at our place 9 hours after leaving. We haven't really done too many guided tours on the trip, but I think this one was worth it. Because the tour company wasn't busy (love those box jellyfish!), we were our own group - although they can be up to 8 or 12 persons. The kids asked tons of questions and kept the sibling bickering to an all-time low.