Cape Tribulation (21st and 22nd Feb)

The last part of my journey was to Cape Tribulation. As we no longer had the car, and because the roads got worse north of Cairns, Thomas and I went on a really good two day tour with Cape Trib Connections.

We were picked up from Gilligan's by our tour guide, Peter. This guy was really chilled and new a hell of a lot of stuff about northern Queensland, but he wasn't boring to listen to like some of the guides I've met while in Australia. He repeatedly told us to "Kick back, relax, take in the secnery, no worries guys. Let's Do It". This phrase (and variants of it) was said by Peter at the end of every little thing he said whilst driving.

On the first day, after being instructed to kick back and relax, we drove north of Cairns, and a few minutes later civilization, according to Peter, had ended, as we drove past the most northerly McDonalds in Australia!

We headed to the first part of the Daintree National Park, which was Mossman Gorge. Now, some of you might ask, "Why visit the Daintree and Cape Tribulation?" Well, you really should, because:

It is the oldest continuously growing rainforest in the world. It's been there for about 120 million years.

It contains some of the oldest plant species in the world. There were 400 million year old trees and mosses which have been on earth for around 1 billion (yes billion) years!

It's home to the Golden Orbe Spider; the largest web-weaving spider in the world, and can grow to the size of dinner plates.

It's home to the Hercules Moth; the largerst moth in the world (one wing is the size of a dinner plate).

And it's also home to the Jackfruit, the world's largest fruit.

Two thirds of Australia's bird species call it home (including the rare Cassowary).

One hectare of the rainforest contains more different plant species than the whole North American continent.

Everything north of Cape Tribulation has depressing names (e.g. Mount Sorrow, Cape Fear, Mount Misery) as Captain Cook had really bad luck on this part of his expedition. Tribulation is an old word for trouble, and Cook named the area Cape Trib because this is where his troubles began.

There were many other interesting facts, but there's too many to list here! Mossman Gorge had some spectacular rapids, with massive boulders littering the rapids' path. Here's where it started chucking it down with rain, as Peter took us on a tour of the rainforest, pointing out all the amazing things there were to see. Mossman village itself had an interesting story to tell. It's home to a large Evangelical Christian community, who share the village with a large nudist resort!

That day we also crossed the Daintree River. In order to cross you had to go on a cargo ferry. It would seem simple to construct a bridge over the river, but as the ferry generates $30 million a year, I doubt that will ever happen! On the other side of the river, we entered the Cape Trib area, which is infamous for its lawlessness. There's no police station north of the river, asnd they only visit it a couple of times a month, so minor crimes like drink driving are common.

It was then a short rainy drive to our hostel, the Cape Trib Beach House. The whole place was surrounded by the rainforest, and giant spiders had found homes in every corner. Thomas and I went down to the beach to see Cape Trib itself. We had made it! 'Adelaide to Cape Tribulation' was over!

That night we went on a fantastic night tour through the rainforest. Being wet season, it was a great time to see wildilfe, as they all came out at night after the rain. We saw a python, lizards, a myriad of different frogs and creepy crawlies. The spiders were fascinating, the most interesting being the trap-door spider and net-casting spider. We also saw some glow-in-the dark mushrooms. We turned of our torches, and the floor looked like the night sky, with dozens of little lights glowing through the darkness. This was a very magical experience.

Also on the first day, we stopped at the Daintree Wild Zoo, which was a rather unimpressive widlife park, unless you include the saltwater crocodiles they had! We went past a pond overgrown with weeds, and Peter threw a few stones down at the nearest corner to us. Out popped a crocodile head, which made us all jump! Apart from some sexually frustrated kangaroos, that's all we saw at the zoo.

The next day Peter picked us up with some other intrepid backpackers, and we kicked back and relaxed south to Cairns. On the way we stopped for some delicious and unusual ice cream, and went on a boat tour on the Daintree River. Sadly we didn't see Fat Albert or any of the other crocodiles that lived in that area, owing to the fact that it was raining, so the river banks they usually rested on were underwater, and it was mating season, so they were in the forest getting down to business.

After a brief tour of Port Douglas and stopping at a fantastic lookout, we were back in Cairns.

So that's it, my part of the journey was over, and the next day I flew back to Adelaide. Thomas headed to Darwin, and would then go to Perth, before coming back to Adelaide for a few days and then flying back to Germany.

After two and a half months, 8750kms, and so many incredible experiences, my summer travels had come to an end.