Daintree & Cape Tribulation Diary

Friday 8th August

We have been to the beach and finally found time to relax!

We woke up to the sounds of the rainforest and to find out what it actually looks like here as we arrived after dark! We are in an amazing setting - the house has its own creek - with a private swimming hole - and the electricity is generated by hydro power from the creek. It is very peaceful apart from the rush of water and animal noises! It is lovely and warm here - the dining table is outside much to the boys amusement (not a garden table - but mahogany with suede chair seats!)

After a nice lazy breakfast we drove out to see our surroundings. It really is quite beautiful. I am told it is unique in the world as two national hetitage sites meet here (so David says) the rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef. So on one side are huge tree covered mountains - coming down to mangroves and perfect white sandy beaches. We stopped off to chat to a man who does river cruises and he pointed us down a little path where on the other side of the river was a 4.5m female crocodile - while everyone stood chating and taking pictures I seemed to be the only one backing back up the track - having deduced if there was a dirty great croc on the other side of the river there was absolutely no reason why there wasn't another one right under our feet!!

We then went to Thornton beach - amazing place amazing views

pretty much deserted ... could this be why.......??!!

We then went down to Cape Tribulation where we booked a trip out to the reef for the day tomorrow and gathered some more info on the area. Then, we returned to the house and spent the afteroon relaxing - swimming in the creek and planning the next few days - so not much more rest to come for the next few days I think!

Saturday 9th August

We have been to The Great Barrier Reef

We were up again early today and headed down to Cape Tribulation beach (about 30 mins away) to pick up our boat out to the barrier reef. It was fairly windy and choppy today and was fairly interesting taking the little boat out to the big boat (or for thse more technical - like David who is laughing at me - the tender dinghy out to the catamaran!) but we all got there dry ish! It was quite rough and the first person started throwing up before we had really got going - one girl - much to the boys disgust and amusement - made a very bad job of throwing her bag of sick overboard - and managed to get most of the contents all over her and another passenger!! (amazing what amuses children!) (and adults David points out!)

Anyway - we were all fine and enjoyed the waves and splashes on the hour or so trip out to the reef. We were kitted out with snorkels and masks and wet suits (a sight to behold I assure you and promise not to scare you with any close up pics except of the boys as they looked really cute!!)

First we went to the Undine Reef - excellent for seeing turtels, sharks and rays we were assured - hmm - look at our pics to see if we saw any!!!

We wont bore you with too many (can save that until we see you - we have nearly 2,000 photos so far, and only halfway through!!) but we saw lots of lovely coral and lots of litle fish but nothing big and too exciting or scary! - we then had lunch on board (we questioned the logic of this after the amount of vomit on the journey to the reef!) and then moved about 4 miles away to the next reef - called Angels at Mackay Reef . David is itching to get his hands on the keyboard and give you some facts (and write it properly he says!) so I will give you the abbreviated version to keep him happy!! He says - the reef is the most divers ecosystem in the world - the only living thing visible from space - over 450 types of coral, 15000 types of fish, it is about 10 miles from the shore, 2500km long - some of the coral grows at only 1mm a year (the fastest growing at only 2.5" a year) so some of the large pieces are thousands of years old. If he remembers more facts I will be sure to let you know!

On the way back - it may have een the highlight of Davids holiday! We have spent many hours it seems gazing out to sea looking for whales as it is mating season and a good time to spot them. We went looking at Kangaroo Island and on our way back to adelaide - all with no luck! They told us they had seen wales every day for the last 3 weeks -- and it seemd it could be the first day they didn;t - until almost back - a large hupback whae with a baby put on a lovely performance for us leaping and turning in the water!! We didn't manage to get any photos as we were all glued to watching them but it was amazing and we haven't been able to stop talking about them since!

We returned to the beach at about 4pm and the sun had finally come out!!! There were a few people swimming in the sea when we arrived back on the little dinghy - and the chap made them get out - he said e had been working here 10 years and he would never swim in the sea - as they regularly see the crocodiles out there - hmm - we had a very quick paddle before walking further from the edge!! On the beach we had our first sighting of a goanna (or monitor lizard) - he was so chilled (and quite large!) it was amazing!!

We then walked along the beach to the mangroves - we didn't stay too long as they are at the waters edge and look like lovely hiding laces for all things scary - but they were very pretty to see!

We made a few bookings on the way back for tomorrow and then went back for dinner and an early night as we were all shattered!

Sunday 10th August

We have been out crocodile spotting and on a nightime rainforest walk

We went out on a boat on Copers Creek to look for crocodiles. They are estuarine crocs (or salties) as they swim in salt water but actally prefer fresh water. They can swim out to sea for about 100km and they venture inland too going up streams and creeks - made us pretty nervy- particularly as we realisied the biggest croc we saw was ony a few km from our house. We saw 3 or 4 crocs - winter is not the best time as they like to sun bathe and typically it wasn't that sunny when we went out (although there were loads of bugs and David and Sams legs are now covered in bites (they are competeing to see who has the most!!!) Here are a few pics of the crocs

We then went back to the house for lunch and spent the sfternoon relaxing there and down at the waterhole. As it was in the ranforest it is very sheltered so the sun doesn't get through easily and although the air temperature was nice and warm the water was freezing!! We did all get in though - it was a really lovely place to have in the back garden - here are some pics

At 8pm we went out into the rainforest to do a guided night walk. The guide took eight of us single file deep into the rainforest with just a large torch each! It was pretty dark in there - the canopy of trees filters out at least 80% of moonlight and you really couldn't see your own hands when the torches were turned off. As it is winter (although hot and humid in there!) it is hard to find animals and I think it would be far more impressive in the summer - but we had a good 2 hours out there and all 3 boys have been terrified by the size of the spiders they encountered and were brushing past on th enarrow little paths! We saw lots of tree frogs (amazed at how the guide could spot them from a mile off!) - we saw a fair number of Boyds Forest Dragons (looked like an iguana to me rather than a Harry Potteresque type dragon) - sleeping birds on branches which was fascinating and a white tailed bush rat too - we couldn't take pics of all the things as it may disturb them but here are a few of our pics

Monday 11th August

We have seen crocodiles leaping and cuddled koalas - and transferred to Cairns

We left our house all packed up fairly early this morning as we're staying tonight in Cairns ready for an early flight tomorrow morning. We spent the day at Hartleys Crocodile Adventures. We thought having seen animals in the wild we would see some closer up and see what they are capable of. It is actually a crocodile farm - and they do the shows like Steve Irwin used to etc. We saw loads and loads of crocs and saw them being fed and leaping etc.

The crocs made the most amazing noise when they snapped their jaws shut - we are told there is 3 tonnes of pressure - and it sounded like it too! That man was mad!

The boys had their pic taken with a snake - an olive python - cost me £7 for the experience - but still took our own pic too!

We also saw lots of Cassowaries - large flightless birds - abit like an emu but very viscous and bad tempered - they can kill a human with one swipe of their claws and there were apparantly lots living in the rainforest by our house though thankfully we never saw one! They are fluffy not feathery and made a bizarre deep throated growl like a dinosaur (not that we have heard one of those but you know.....!) They are endangered and only found in the Australian rainforest and in parts of New Guinea - very nice looking but scary - worth noting the keepers went in with the crocs but refused to go in with these birds!

I think a highlight for the boys was seeing koalas again and getting the chance to have a stroke! They are so cute and lazy! - they smell really strongly of eucalyptus when you are close - but very placid!

We also saw a Quoll - a cat like marsupial relateto the koala - which was rather sweet looking though not sure I like the sound of its relation the black tiger quoll which roam the rainforest and are the size of a big dog or small tiger!

We also saw some scary spiders - and only one of them was an exhibit!! We saw the most enormous bush huntsman on the outside of the quoll cage which the keeper then caught in a bucket (much too big for a glass and postcard!) and put in the cage for him to eat! - the quoll seemed pretty scared too mind and ignored it - it must have been the size of Davids hand! see pic nicely taken by Sam from a safe distance! The black and yellow spider is a Golden Orb Spider - it is the subject of much debate as I say it is an absolute max of 6" whearas David says at about 9" (men and size eh!) the web was massive (about 1m - that is David's metre so use your imagination!) but that pretty beastie was nowhere near 9" (we have agreed to disagree - but I know I am right!) Nigel and Barbara may want to look away now!!!!!!

Anyway - it was a good day and we headed to Cairns and had a quick bite to eat ad stayed in a pretty dire hotel (thanks Thomas Cook - the one we trust them with and it was not that pleasant- think mildew and stained matresses and screaming kids - not ours!) so glad we booked the rest ourselves! - we left at 3.30am anyway so no problem!

Tuesday 12th August

We are flying to New Zealand

We were up at 3.30am and gladly left teh dire hotel and headed for the airport - at least it was only a 10 minue drive! The flight left on time and we flew in to Brisbane - and had only a short wait before picking up the flight to Auckland - which actually arrived early - and it was raining too! We caught the shuttle bus out to the rental depot and picked up our camper van (watching DVD's on how to change gear and empty out toilets - fascinating stuff....) they did keep 3 of our large bags as it is faily compact - and we set off feeling like pensioners in our campervan!!!!! (Like driving a truck - the boys sit right at the back - through the kitchen etc - miles away - I have a sore throat already from answering the inevitable "are we there yet?" type questions! ) We picked up essentials supplies - wine, cornflakes chocolate etc (much cheaper here than Australia) and drove about 120km east through the Coromandel forest - fantastic scenery that rapidly descended into darkness - we were heading for Hot Water Beach but parked up early when the early morning caught up with us and we were hungry - so we stopped in a layby and slept by a mountain river. No pics today as too much travelling but lots tomorrow!)

Round the world home, Dillo home, eek home

Beijing, Sydney, Blue Mountains, Kangaroo Island, Ayers Rock , Daintree ,New Zealand,Fiji, Los Angeles