Welcome to the Jungle

16.06. - 17.06.17

Our last two effective days with our car are spent in the oldest tropical rainforest in the solar system, the Daintree Forest. We take a car ferry across the Daintree River and arrive at the national park. From there, we drive directly to a viewpoint. From there, we have a beautiful view over the forest to the sea. Afterwards, we drive to the Blue Pools. A real insider tip recommended to us by the Calyppsos hostel owner. In these pools, the women of the Aborigines used to bathe to become fertile. So it is a very special place for them. However, it is said that men who bathe in them become impotent. After the Blue Pools, we go to Thornton Beach. Crocodiles are supposed to lie on the beach there to bathe in the sun. Unfortunately, we don't see any, but we can see their footprints in the sand. After that, we walk along the Mangrove Boardwalk. This leads directly through the rainforest.

Afterwards, we want to check in at a national park campground. But this proves to be difficult because we have to register online. However, we don't have internet...

Fortunately, we meet a nice woman who takes care of the booking for us and even lets us stay on her spot in the end because the campground is already full. We spend the evening together with Patricia, who was born in French-speaking Switzerland.

The next morning we climb Mt Sorrow. It goes steeply uphill through the rainforest. We walk over wet rocks, roots, climb a short distance with the help of a rope, and are partially sucked out by leeches. After exhausting 2.5 hours, we made it. Unfortunately, we have no good view at all because it is very cloudy and we are very disappointed. I climb another 10 min because the view is supposed to be better there. Actually, I have a much better and wider view of the jungle.

On the way down, we encounter a snake lizard and now it starts to clear up.

Back at the parking lot, we refresh ourselves and walk to Cape Tribulation Beach. Then we drive to the exit of the national park, where we take a crocodile boat tour on the Daintree River. We see four saltwater crocodiles. One male, which is 4.5 m long, and three smaller females. We also see two smaller crocodiles, whose gender cannot be determined yet. Truly impressive creatures and their resemblance to dinosaurs is astonishing.

In the evening, we are in Port Douglas where we spend the night. But before that, we go to the Iron Bar, where we witness a Cane Toad Race. A fun frog race.