Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation

On Friday, October 28th, 2016, we set off from our campsite in Port Douglas towards Daintree Rainforest in the morning. This is a national park and one of the oldest rainforests in the world. To get there, you have to take a small ferry across the Daintree River and you're already in the jungle.

We had a map of the region with us and just went through all the attractions one after the other. Our first stop was a lookout point where we could see the mouth of the Daintree River merging into the ocean. Then we went to Jindalba Boardwalk, where we could wander around the rainforest in a circle. It was very nice but not very long. After that, we sat down at one of the picnic tables in the shade and had our leftover burgers for lunch. It was delicious, just like the previous evening. When Andi went to the bathroom for a moment, I spotted a lace monitor lizard that had ventured out of the forest to sunbathe. A lace monitor is a large lizard, similar to a monitor lizard, and we had seen one before in the rainforest of the botanical garden. But here we could see it better and it even came close to our picnic table. When Andi came back from the bathroom, I showed him the lizard and we followed its path until it disappeared into the forest. Then we packed up our stuff and set off again.

The road through the rainforest was very winding, narrow, and sometimes steep, so we had to drive carefully. This was also necessary because there were signs everywhere warning that cassowaries could cross the road. Unfortunately, we didn't see any in the wild, but we had read at Hartley's Park that many cassowaries are killed on the road. Soon we realized why: the locals (or at least we believe they are) drive like crazy. They speed along these roads at 80 km/h, and if you're only driving at 50 km/h because of a tight curve, they tailgate you from behind with a gap of 2 meters. It's really insane. It should be noted that the speed limit on the entire route was always 60 km/h and there were many curves with a recommended speed of 40 km/h. There were also some "bumpers," which are speed regulating humps (according to Andi :D), where a speed of 20 km/h was recommended (they are happily built on roads all over Australia). Despite all of this, the crazy drivers were undeterred. On the other hand, we didn't let them deter us from safe driving, and luckily there were occasional overtaking lanes or bays for slow vehicles.

Next, we wanted to go to a Rainforest Skywalk with an observation tower, but when we realized that it would cost $30 per person, we decided to leave. It wasn't worth it for us. So we just continued driving and arrived at the Daintree Ice Cream Company. The woman at the campsite in Port Douglas had already recommended it to us, so we stopped there. They have a different ice cream flavor every day, and you can only buy a cup with four scoops for $6.50. The special thing is that the ice cream is made from local tropical fruits and is quasi organic. On the day we were there, the flavors were Wattleseed (long, brown, bean-like tree seeds), Davidson Plum (a plum-like fruit that only grows in the rainforest of North Queensland), Passion Fruit (known) and Macadamia (also known). We really wanted ice cream, so we treated ourselves to a cup for two. And the ice cream was so delicious!! It was sooooo good!! Especially the Wattleseed flavor was great, it has a nutty taste, and Macadamia with small pieces of nuts in it was also very good, and the two sweet flavors complemented it perfectly. So the little detour to the Ice Cream Company was definitely worth it!

The next stop was the Daintree Tea Company, where we could see the tea fields and some old tea-making machines. Andi then stole 5 tea leaves to dry them in the car and make tea from them in the next few days. It actually turned out quite well :D

After that, we stopped at Thornton Beach and went for a walk there. It was fantastic! It was a real paradise beach, just as you would imagine it. With dense jungle right on a fine sandy beach and the deep blue sea. Super beautiful. We also took some pictures on a half-sunken tree trunk. Funny thing is, at the beaches there in the north, small crabs dig holes in the sand, and when you walk on the beach at low tide, you can see these holes and little balls of sand everywhere. The balls are apparently dug up by the crabs as well, so large parts of the beach are covered with these little balls. Pretty funny :D

After the beach walk, we went to another rainforest boardwalk. This was a loop through the rainforest and a mangrove forest that was about 1.7 km long. When we set off, it was already late afternoon and we didn't encounter any other people on the walk. That was really cool because usually there are other people who make more noise and might scare away some animals. We could hear all the forest sounds: the chirping of the birds, the rustling of the lizards in the dry leaves, the bubbling of the air holes in the mangrove swamps. We particularly liked the mangrove landscape because it was so different and we had never seen it before. Really beautiful.

After the walk, it was time to find our campsite. For the night, we had chosen the official bush campsite in Daintree National Park because it was the cheapest of all. There are also several other campsites in the region and probably 50 other hotels, lodges, and resorts, but we don't have such high demands and wanted to try what it's like to camp in the middle of the jungle. We had to book the campsite online beforehand, which is apparently the case for all campgrounds in national parks in the state of Queensland. In the Northern Territory, there were always those Honesty Boxes right at the campsite. You would think: oh, so advanced with online booking, etc. and then the park surely gets the right amount if you pay by credit card. The stupid thing is that in the areas of the bush camps, you never have internet! That means you can never spontaneously go to any place, you always have to know in advance when and where you will stay, when you have internet. So for us, that meant that we had already booked our spot at the Noah Beach Campground before we took the ferry across the Daintree River. However, at that time, we still didn't know how long it would take us to explore the region and whether we might want to stay for a second night on the campsite. But we also didn't know if we would have internet anywhere in the park to book a second night. Thus, it was a dilemma. In the end, we only booked one night and hoped that we would be able to find internet somewhere if we wanted to book another night.

When we arrived at the campsite, we first looked for our spot and then went to the beach for a short while. It's only a few meters from the campsite and again one of those tropical, untouched beaches. But since it was soon going to get dark and it's already rather dark in the dense forest, we went back to the car and prepared our sleeping area and dinner. This time we had something simple: pasta with tomato sauce. After dinner, we sat outside for a while, then washed up, cleaned up and went back to the toilet cabin together. And that was an experience because it was pitch dark and we just stumbled through the forest with our headlamps. Suddenly I saw something reflecting and right at eye level in the middle of the road, a spider was rappelling down on its thread. And the spider wasn't small. Thank goodness I didn't walk into it!!! It was really creepy. On the rest of the way and especially on the way back, we walked very slowly and constantly looked in all directions. As an indication of the spiders and their webs, there were floating leaves hanging near trees, we had already noticed that when it was still light. But it was still shocking to see a spider so close in live action. In the middle of the jungle. At night. In any case, it was enough for us and we went straight to bed. We left the glass hatch of the trunk open, otherwise we would have suffocated, but other than that, we closed all openings.

The next morning, the animal encounters continued: ants had taken over our car roof, trying to collect dead insects, and when I took down our mosquito net, I found two caterpillars in my hands. I have no idea how they got there. I shook out the net and still, in the evening, when I put the net back up, another one of these caterpillars appeared...

Andi and I still felt a bit creepy after the nocturnal experiences and wanted to get out of this part of the forest as quickly as possible. Thank goodness we had only booked one night there. I also didn't feel like going on one of the night jungle tours that I found very interesting the day before.

After breakfast, our first stop was the Dubuji Boardwalk. Unfortunately, due to maintenance work, we couldn't walk the entire loop walk there, but only about 500m. From the end of the boardwalk, you could also walk a few meters to another beach, so we took a look there. This time, however, the beach was not as mega spectacular (perhaps only because we had already seen quite a few), so we went back to the car.

From the walk, we went straight to Cape Tribulation. This is a small peninsula and a section of the beach where Captain Cook got stuck with his ship during his explorations and named it after his perceived distress ("tribulation"). We had already heard a lot about the cape and its beauty and were therefore a bit disappointed on site. There was supposed to be a lookout point and we thought we would walk 1-2 km to an elevated point and have a great view. But the path to the lookout was only 350m long and wheelchair accessible, and the view from the top was only in one direction. Of course, it was still beautiful and the view of the white beach and the bright blue sea was fantastic, but we had somehow expected something more dramatic. We had set our expectations too high.

Since the walking tracks on that day were not as extensive as we had thought, we spent the rest of the morning and lunchtime just under a tree at Cape Tribulation Beach, reading a bit and having lunch there. By the way, it should be mentioned that Cape Tribulation was the northernmost point of our trip in Australia. From there, we headed south.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, we wanted to go to Tropical Fruit Tasting because we had seen a poster before and found it really interesting. We had already expected that it would cost something, but when we read that the whole thing was supposed to cost $30 per person, we decided to leave. It is much cheaper for us to get some fruits ourselves somewhere and try them. After all, there are plenty of farms in the south that offer their fruit at roadside stalls. I just didn't understand why a fruit tasting would be so expensive. But then again, I wasn't there, maybe it takes 4 hours and who knows what else is included.

After the fruit tasting also fell through, there was nothing left for us to do in the region, so we started our way back. We had thought that there would be more or at least longer trails. In addition, everything else cost extra and was very touristy. We found that a bit of a shame because the forest and the beaches themselves are really beautiful.

On the way along the coast towards the south, we discussed where we actually wanted to go and decided to go back to Cairns. There we wanted to take care of some errands and relax at the great campsite where we had been before. It was Saturday evening anyway, and on Sunday, almost no shops are open, so we expected to have a lazy day. At the campsite, we were able to admire a real spectacle during dinner because it was the weekend before Halloween, and surprisingly many people had dressed up for some parties. There were horror dolls, creepy clowns, and people with blood all over their faces in various places. A group of French people even modeled impressive wounds and cracks in their faces with artificial teeth. Really spooky. Even on Sunday and Monday, there were still some people in costumes to be seen in the evenings, but Saturday was clearly the main day. I didn't even know that Halloween is celebrated so big in Australia.

On Sunday, we did our laundry again, including bed linen. I caught up on some blog posts, we went swimming in the pool, and in the morning, we visited the Tanks Market at the botanical garden. It's always on the last Sunday of the month, and since we were there anyway, we went there too. It was really nice. There were all sorts of handicraft things to admire, the art gallery had free admission, and there were performances by musicians. Andi was particularly impressed by a guitar player, so while I looked around the market a bit, he just listened to the musician. He really played great.

On Monday morning, we went straight to a workshop because our check engine light had been on for a week and we wanted to have it checked. The mechanic explained to us that in 9 out of 10 cases, the light is due to contaminated gasoline, and we should tank higher-quality gasoline with a higher octane rating for 3-4 tank fills and also pour a bit of methylated spirit into the tank, which might split any existing water. If that doesn't help, we have to come back, and they have to measure the error responsible for the light for $69. However, we had already suspected that it was due to contaminated gasoline (because of the cheap gas station in Rollingstone) and now hope that the light will eventually turn off on its own.

Since the workshop was taken care of faster than expected, we went to a shopping center afterwards. Andi went to the hairdresser, I bought a new pair of shorts as a replacement for my destroyed pants from picking tomatoes, and we did some grocery shopping. We had the rest of the day off and could plan a bit for the next few days. We wanted to explore the Atherton Tablelands on the way south, which are located southwest of Cairns and are a nice mountain landscape with some waterfalls. That's where we are now, and in the next entry, I'll write about all the things we have seen here :)

P.S. After the time change in Germany last weekend, we are now a whole 9 hours ahead. Yay :D