Cape Trib trip - Australia

One of things on our to-do list in Cairns was a trip to Cape Tribulation, a tropical national park north of Cairns. We decided on an overnight trip with Jungle Tours.  We were picked up at 7:15am at the hostel and then arrived at the Wildlife Habitat at around 8:45.  This is a small zoo with mainly birds, and some crocs and wallabies in three enclosures based on habitat. It was a bit too commercial for our liking, you could hand feed the wallabies and have you picture taken with koalas or crocs. But the animal presentations were informative. 

Oh oh....

Then we drove to the Daintree River ferry, and after crossing were in the Daintree National Park. One of the few places where the endangered cassowary lives. Unfortunately we didn't see one. When we arrived at our hostel we had lunch and the day trippers went on, while we chilled on the beach. A lovely looking beach with jungle right up to the water, but not a swimming area, this is where the salties roam! 

Cape Tribulation beach

The hostel really was a collection of bungalows at the path from the reception area down to the beach. Since we really have to mind our spending we slept in a dorm room here. That meant a 4 room bungalow with 5 beds in each room. We shared our room with 2 German boys. 

At 7:15pm we were picked up for our night walk through the forest. The walk itself was rather nice, but we were disappointed that the only wild life we saw were some spiders; not our favourite animals. 

At 9:45 we returned and were knackered! Let's use our jetlag as an excuse, not our age.... We went straight to bed. 

Our bungalow at Beach House

The next morning we woke up just before 7 and enjoyed a walk on the beach before the crowds arrived. After lunch we joined the day trippers for the drive back. The guide this second day was very knowledgeable aboriginal guy, that shared his knowledge of the forest and some of his people's legends. We stopped on our way for a short walk, and saw a Boyd's forest dragon during the board walk. Twice! Gorgeous creatures. 

Boyd's forest dragon

 

On our return we had a river cruise planned while crossing the Daintree River. Time to do some croc spotting! We saw the alpha male basking in the sun. An impressive 4,5meter long specimen, probably some 65 years old. 

Impressive 65 year old salty

 

The rather cute 14 week old on top of a broke log, in the vicinity of its mum Lizzy, and a two-year old hiding in the mangrove roots. Of course there were loads of birds at the shores too. Egrets, herons and kingfishers! Too quick to snap a photo off, but at least we saw them. When we arrived back at our Cairns hostel we went into town for some grocery shopping and then back to bed! Oh such rock and roll lives we live! 

Rather cute 14 week old salty