Today we went north towards the rainforest from our hostel 'Mad Monkes Backpacker'! Our tour guide John picked us up shortly after 7 o'clock and drove with us and 18 other participants. We had a 2 1/2 hour drive along the coast ahead of us.
Numerous lookout points along the way give tourists the opportunity to admire the sea and the green of the surrounding forests.
Arriving at the first destination, we started with a smoking ceremony that a friendly park ranger performed with us to welcome us to their land and to let the animals know that we are here.
After another short bus ride, we walked through a rainforest walk for the first time to a large waterhole where we were allowed to cool off for a while! The water was wonderfully fresh and super clear.
Crocodile Boat Tour
We continued on the Daintree River, which is best explored by raft or boat. The nice boat guide took us down the river for about 1 hour and informed us about crocodiles and the surrounding area. And it didn't take 10 minutes for us to spot the first crocodile in the river. We were lucky because the water was rather calm today. But that wouldn't be the only one, the crocodile whitesharp, who is already about 70 years old, chilled on the beach and we got pretty close to it. Crocodiles can live up to 150 years and are quite heavy, have 3 lenses, and never sleep completely, they are terribly fast. There are two types of crocodiles here, freshwater and saltwater, one of them doesn't like to have humans for lunch, I think it's the freshwater ones... We also saw a camouflage bird that we would never have seen without our guide because it was really good at blending in.
A rainforest that stretches to the sea
After lunch, we went back into the jungle with all its green palms, vines, bird chirping, and large spiders. One of the special features of this park is that the rainforest reaches all the way to the sea. So we were able to walk on a beautiful beach for the first time and put our toes in the sand. We could only see the sea because it is not advisable to go into the water due to the highly poisonous jellyfish and crocodiles. 😬 After a tropical ice cream and another viewpoint, we headed back to Cairns by bus.The tour was super cool and the national park very impressive, only unfortunately our guide John was not very relaxed and rushed us from one activity to the next, which made this day a bit stressful.
