Rainforest light (Mossman Gorge)

Yesterday was, as you all noticed, a blog-free day. Nothing happened, except that we drove from Cairns to Port Douglas on the Captain Cook Highway, which offered beautiful views of the ocean and beach. We are staying at the QT Resort, which I randomly found on the internet and we are all very excited about it (sometimes you just get lucky).

For dinner, after making two wrong turns, we ended up at a store that only looked like it had a nice garden to sit in, but the food we got there was fantastic: unpretentious and delicious Italian/Spanish food! Chilly's Pizza & Trattoria... remember it!

So today we made our first joint excursion to the rainforest and explored Mossman Gorge (rainforest trails in a gorge through which the Mossman River flows). At first glance, it looks very touristy (entrance fee, shuttle bus from the parking lot to the rainforest (5-7 minutes drive), souvenir shop...), and then you're in it, everything disperses (not that it's poorly signposted... the groups of people suddenly disappear and you only occasionally come across small groups) and it's beautiful. Almost like a magical forest - you walk in the shade between different rainforest trees, some of which are entwined with figs or covered with ferns, the sun shines through the treetops, the river gurgles occasionally (forming a creek where you can cool your feet) and sometimes it's wild. Cassowaries run across the path, colorful butterflies and dragonflies flutter, and the birds in the trees above make a racket like crazy!

The humidity is quite high compared to the desert (it's a whopping 34 degrees) and none of us find it that bad. We noticed this during dinner (at the Iron Bar): at home, warnings would be issued against going out in such temperatures and you would be urged to drink a lot - blah blah blah - here you just live outside, when it's summer, and you deal with everything.

In the late afternoon today, we splashed around a bit in the pool (did I mention how warm it is and that the sun is shining?!) and had a flying fox show in the sky: hundreds of these animals flew over us - similar to the flocks of geese that you see flying south/north in the sky. Amazing creatures (and they eat spiders, which is great for the three of us here - ones that are the size of a hand, that is...)!

We then spent the evening at the Iron Bar, sitting outside (24 degrees) and enjoying delicious food (I had 500g of prawns 😍). It was also funny that in the back room, amidst much cheering, a cane toad race took place - to laugh at (quacking would be more fitting, the man says).

Tomorrow, two-thirds of us are going on a boat and snorkeling tour to the Great Barrier Reef (and once again, it's time to get up early...) and one-third will be chilling by the pool.

We'll keep you posted!