skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Day 6: The Daintree and Cape Tribulation
FINALLY here is the lowdown on our final day up in the tropics. And it was a good'un. We wanted to head up into the Daintree National Park, as far as Cape Tribulation, so named by Captain Cook in 1770 after his ship ran aground on the reef just off the coast. It now is also referred to as 'Kulki', the original aboriginal name for the site. People are now shifting back towards using the aboriginal names for certain parts of Australia (such as 'Uluru' instead of Ayer's Rock) as they have realised that renaming sacred sites in reference to Australia's European colonialists was actually quite offensive.
We made a moderately (by Fellows standards) early start and headed north out of Port Douglas to the Daintree River, which marks the entrance to the National Park. There is no bridge across the river: instead, they have preserved the original way of entering the rainforest, which involves the Daintree River Ferry. This is basically a flat topped boat which you drive your car onto, and then drive off when the boat reaches the other side! Quite an experience! There is also a little section for pedestrians to stand in.
It holds quite a number of cars at once, so we didn't have to wait too long to board. Once over the other side, we were off into the rainforest!
The road is narrow and windy within the National Park, and since we were stuck near the back of all the cars that had been on our ferry-load, it was a bit slow going as people drove carefully. So, we decided to stop off for a bit and do the Jindalba boardwalk.
There are a handful of these boardwalks in the Daintree. They basically build a raised wooden path along a short route, which allows you to enter the forest and have a look. Of course, it would be near impossible otherwise to go for a walk as the forest is too thick and the ground to uneven, in some areas too swampy, and of course the undergrowth may harbour all manor of deadly wildlifes.
Bec on the boardwalk.
It is surprisingly cool under the canopy, and it's a quiet, peaceful place. Although we were on constant guard for any wandering Cassowaries that might appear! The Cassowary is a huge, flightless bird - as big as a man - that inhabits this area. It is critically endangered, only an estimated 1500-3000 currently exist in north Queensland, but they all live in a very small area in the wet tropics and are actually sighted on a reasonably regular basis. This does make them sound rather fascinating, but the trouble is, they are incredibly aggressive and have razor sharp spurs on their legs. They run at you to attack, and are capable of disemboweling you, probably before you've even realised what you are looking at. The Guiness World Records book lists the Cassowary as the world's most dangerous bird. So we didn't really want to meet one of them. There are numerous advice signs around the boardwalk areas advising you that if you see one, to try to put something in between you and it, like a tree.
After the boardwalk, we continued on up the road, which was now clearer of traffic. After stopping at a cafe for lunch, we arrived at Cape Tribulation in the mid-afternoon.
[Perephoto]
Cape Tribulation has such an amazing feel, it is like nowhere else I have ever been. The light is strong and very harsh, which meant my photos didn't come out that well. It is a beautiful, golden sandy beach but is eerily quiet and relatively person-bare. There were a few people walking up and down, but none of the usual beach activity, like swimming and sunbathing. The main reason for the lack of swimming is clear from the prominent warning signs all along the beach - you are deep into crocodile territory. Crocodile attacks can kill you in an instant, and the croc population is thriving in the rivers and creeks that open into the sea around Cape Tribulation due to the area's relatively untouched state. My Rough Guide says that you may even see them sunbathing on the beach at Cape Trib.!
Cape Tribulation feels like the End of the World might feel. A calm, peaceful place with an undercurrent of vague unease. It is also literally the End of the World for many visitors to the north Queensland tropics. The sealed road to the north ends just after the turn off to the small car park, and continues as a mere dirt track up to Cooktown and the nothingness of the northernmost tip. Impassable to all but experienced 4WD drivers most of the time, and for parts of the wet summer season completely impassable to all due to flooding, many travellers simply make Cape Tribulation the end of the road.
Cape Tribulation is also one of the only places in the world where two World Heritage Sites meet - the Wet Tropics and the Great Barrier Reef. From the lookout point up on the Cape, you get a good view out over the Coral Sea.
We had a stroll up and down the sand and up to the lookout point. Mangroves line the edges of the sand, feeding from the salt water. Beyond is dense rainforest.
After a good bit of exploring and crocodile aversion, we drove a short distance back down the road to the Dubuji boardwalk, a longer boardwalk that takes in mangrove swamps.
These leaves were HUGE!
Swampy. There were a lot of shapes moving in the water. I don't imagine that stagnant brown water is a particularly healthy environment in which to live, but apparently in the wet season there is a lot more water so the creatures must just cling on to life until it gets good again.
Mangroves!
On the way back to Port Douglas, we stopped off at another couple of beaches on the Daintree coast - Myall beach just the southern side of the Cape, and Cow Bay further south.
Stinger warning. Fortunately, dry season is stinger safe as they are all vacationing in other waters. There seems to have been a lot of worry about dangerous animals in this blog post so I'll round it out with some info about marine stingers - or to give them their correct title, Box Jellyfish.
Box Jellies are, quite simply and quite officially, the deadliest living thing on earth. They contain enough venom to instantly kill 60 adult humans, and there have been over 5500 recorded deaths since 1954. Even if you survive the sting, you may suffer a heart attack and drown before you can get back to shore. Their tentacles can be up to 3 meters long and in the water they are so transparent that they are practically invisible. The pain of the sting is agonizing, and tales are told of victims continuing to scream even after being knocked out with morphine. Best avoided.
---
So that is almost all for Queensland. The following day was the day of our return to cold cold Sydney. But before the flight we just had time to go check out the marina side of Port Douglas, and the resort of Palm Cove north of Cairns. Pictures to follow in another entry!
As usual, additional bonus photos!! can be found at Flickr.
Not lost in the Daintree rainforest, honestly....just moving house! Normal (i.e. moderately less infrequent) blog service will be resumed shortly!
Daintree Wet Tropics National Park, Tropical North Queensland
copyright Perephoto
Day 5: Port Douglas
When one lives on the east coast of Australia, one cannot ever watch a sunset over the sea as one could if one lived on the west coast. One can however watch a sunrise. This was an impossibility in Sydney however as we do not live next to a beach and could not get to a beach in time for the sunrise. Cue Four Mile Beach in Port Douglas - 5 minutes walk from our apartment. Sunrise approximately 06.35am, easy. So on Sunday morning, that's what we did.
Arrived at the beach at about 5.55am, it was deserted aside from for a hippy family who were hurriedly stamping out a campfire and packing up their children, having obviously ignored the 'no camping on the beach' signs.
The Sunrise Team, at this stage consisting of Bec, Mark and me.
The sky starts to brighten shortly after 6am.
Pere joined the Sunrise Team (sounds like we are getting ready to present an early morning daytime TV show??) at around 06.15am.
Light, but not quite full sun....
Lovely sea. It was still warm, I tested it.
Here it comes....!
Woohoo!
Eerie light -everything went bright orange.
Looonnnng shadows.
People started to appear on the beach as the sun arrived. A large number of joggers, cyclists and a surprising number of people with all their beach stuff ready to start sunbathing!
We went home for a nap, then Bec went to the Sunday Markets where she drank a coconut (they stick a straw in it for you - it wasn't very tasty, apparently), Mark and I went to the ice cream shop, then we all went on the beach for the rest of the day.
Day 4: Kuranda Skyrail
After being exhausted from Green Island the day before, we all went for a good big long slumber and a big lie in. After lunch on the Saturday, we pondered a trip on the Skyrail, which is a cablecar route starting north of Cairns, going over the rainforest and ending in Kuranda, a village in the Atherton Tablelands.
We arrived at the terminal at 2pm and boarded the car, then were swept off high up the side of a rainforest-covered mountain! Pere and I were greatly excited, while Mark, Lep and Bec suffered brief panic attacks before they got used to it!
The ride gives you two stops where you can do a boardwalk in the rainforest. The first is at the top of the peak, the second at Barron Gorge.
Since it was dry season, Barron River was pretty dry! There was a photo on the information board which showed it as a HUGE river and waterfall in the height of summer (wet season).
No sign of a crocodile :(
At the other end of the skyrail is the village of Kuranda. Since the skyrail brings so many tourists, it's a very touristy place, which would probably be very pleasant if it hadn't been tackified up by the tourist industry. Still, it wasn't unpleasant having a stroll around, and we didn't have long anyway before it was time for the skyrail back to Cairns.
On the drive back up to Port Douglas, we stopped of at Rex Lookout on the coastal road (just as the sun was setting), which gives you this fantastic view:
Back in Port Douglas, we went for fish and chips at the Fresq cafe for dinner. Mmmmm fish and chips.
Day 3: Green Island
The one last thing we did in Cairns on day 1, before we drove to Port Douglas was to go to the tourist information office and book ourselves onto the Big Cat tour to Green Island for the Friday, as we wanted to be able to see the Great Barrier Reef close up and Green Island seemed like a good place to do that from.
It was a good tour for us as well since a lot of the Reef tours are for diving and snorkelling only - bad for us as my mother and I cannot engage in underwater activities because of our silly ears - whereas on the Green Island tour you get to spend time on the island itself and have the option of a glass-bottomed boat tour if you do not want to do snorkelling. The Big Cat tour cost $73 each for the full day and included in the price was either glass-bottom boat trip or snorkel equipment hire.
Since we were staying in Port Douglas (60km north of Cairns) and the we had to be in Cairns at 8am to be registered and board the boat, the day required rather an early start! We all rolled out of bed at 5am and were in the car at 6am, quite an achievement really! The road at this time was pretty clear, and we had an amazing view of the sunrise on the coastal part of the road, off Ellis Beach.
I also had my query answered over "does it EVER get cold in tropical north queensland?" the answer is NO, not really, although you do need a cardigan on at 5am in winter.
We arrived into Cairns and put the car in the carpark by about 7.15am, so decided to go for breakfast at Perotto's, the cafe at the gallery we had visited on day 1.
Toast and coffee later, we were ready to head to the boat...place. Sorry, the word for where you get on a boat has completely escaped me. But in any case we queued up and got out tickets, then boarded the catamaran. It was a nice big shiny boat! The three snorkellers (Bec, Pere and Mark) collected their snorkel stuff and we were off!
Leaving Cairns behind....it looks like such a teensy uneventful place compare to the views of Sydney from the water.
Beautiful, rainforest-coated coastline.
After around an hour, Green Island loomed in the distance!! The island is a coral cay (small, flat, sandy island formed on the surface of a coral reef) and is about 17 miles off the queensland coast.
First view of the island! Just after I'd stepped off the boat onto the long jetty.
Coral reef! The water is so clear, you can just see all this coral just beneath the surface for miles around. I'd never seen anything like it in my life, it was incredible.
It was about 10.15am when we arrived. Lep and I were to go on the glass-bottomed boat at 11.45, so we sat on the beach for a bit while the snorkellers prepared!
Very fetching!
The island has two beaches, one on each side of the jetty. The snorkelling action seemed mostly centred on this one.
You can see our boat in the distance at the end of the jetty.
At 11.30, Lep and I set off down the jetty for our glass-bottomed boat. I wasn't expecting to see too much (I was mostly grumpy at my inability to go snorkel) but it was actually amazing! The took us out to the deeper parts of the water and there were some HUGE fish, and so brightly coloured. It was also good because the guide on the boat gave you loads of information about what you were looking at, and we learnt lots of interesting things, such as that the Nemo clownfish (who is meant to be a boy child) in Finding Nemo is innacurate because only adult females are orange and white. Males are grey, and there are no young female clownfish, they are all born male and some turn into females as they mature.
Most of my photos weren't very good, but here is one to give an idea.
After the boat we ate some chips on the island, and I went for a dip in the sea.
At 3.45pm it was unfortunately time to head back to the boat for the trip back into Cairns, so we waved bye bye to Green Island.
The boat ride back was fun, the more ice-cream-orientated of our party (Mark and Bec) had ice creams on the boat and we watched out for humpback whales (some had been sighted that morning in the area, apparently), although didn't see any.
We made it back to Cairns at 5pm and then did the drive back along the coastal road, watching the sunset this time. Sunrise and sunset in one day.
Mark and Pere hired an underwater camera, and they also had a waterproof case for one of our compact cameras, so there are quite a few underwatery photos. I'll put those up somewhere when I get hold of them and will notify here. As usual there are tons more photos from the day at Flickr, click the Green Island set on the right hand side of the page.
Fishy says bye!
