Cape Trib and the Daintree forest

After a bad night sleep (apparently I was sleep talking saying 'I don't have to do anything' which I guessed had something to do with the tours) we came to the decision that we'd stick with all these tours apart from the free one that sounded pretty crap. So in better moods we ate our toast and peanut butter (we have to finish the peanut butter before we can have a different breakfast) at around half 6 and checked out of the hostel, leaving our bags there until this evening. Unfortunately, Matt had to deal with a very grumpy rude man at reception which affected his good mood and so when we were picked up just outside the hostel at 7.15 by our tour guide for today we weren't so jolly. Our tour guide introduced himself as George and shook both our hands. I felt like hugging him as he seemed so nice. He was probably about 60 and I think was a descendant of some aborigine people. We hopped on the minibus and had a little nap, occassionally waking to listen to facts or stories George was telling the rest of the bus. I wish I'd been awake for all of it as some of the stuff was fascinating. 

At just before 10 we stopped for coffee and Tim Tams at a little picnic area. Our group wasn't too big and was a mixture of English, German, Dutch, American and Swiss, all girls except for Matt and one other guy (all the girls were rather gorgeous too). Everyone seemed pleasant and I felt it was going to be a good day. 

We drove on further and entered the Daintree forest, stopping at around 11 to take a little stroll. George told us all about the different trees and birds that lived in the forest and how it's now protected. Many years ago loads of it was chopped down to build houses and such but in the last 40 years much of it has been replanted in order to get back the forest that there once was. The walk was on a wooden walkway so nothing strenuous but it was lovely seeing the different trees with their amazing roots and a cool dragon lizard jumping between branches. 

The next stop was Cape Tribulation beach, a beautiful quiet beach surrounded by forest. We stayed here for 45 minutes to eat lunch but being the fools that we are we thought lunch was included. It wasn't. We had some dates in our bag for snacks so had to eat a few of them to keep us going. It was nice to sit on the beach though as the temperature was very pleasant. Luckily, our next stop was for ice cream so we shared a tub with four different flavours (far too expensive for one each). Two of the flavours were something crazy that I can't remember but the other two were coconut and banana which tasted pretty good. 

George dropped us off at the edge of the Daintree river for a river cruise. This was no ordinary river cruise though, this was a croc cruise. The tour guide was brilliant and told us all sorts of facts about crocodiles like how they need to be protected as there aren't many of them left and they can slow down their heart rate to two beats a minute so they can survive under water for five hours at a time. They can also go for 12 months without food! We saw some osprey flying over us and the views down the river were quite lovely. The cruise finished off at the tour guide's farm like place where we had free coffee and biscuits and we could pay to have a picture with a baby croc. Both of us touched the croc but didn't pay for a picture as it had tape wrapped round it's mouth which looked a bit inhumane. George was waiting for us with the minibus when we got off the boat so when everyone was ready we set off to our next destination. 

We finished our day at Mossman gorge. We parked up and then got a shuttle bus to the gorge which took around 10 minutes. It was a pleasant walk along the path, stopping off at view points and some people swimming in the clear green water. It was late afternoon by this point and not very warm so both of us were chickens and chose to stay dry. I wasn't super impressed with the gorge though but maybe that's because I've seen some pretty spectacular things in the past 4 months. 

On our journey back to Cairns we drove through Port Douglas to check it out. It was a nice enough town, similar to Cairns just a bit more upmarket. George told us a few more stories on the drive and before we knew it we were back in Cairns. We quickly popped into the travel shop to cancel the free tour and sort out any other questions we had. Still concerned that we'd spent an awful lot of money we tried to put those thoughts to the back of our mind and got a pizza from the supermarket that was already cooked for us (just like you can get in Sainsbury's). It had beef and pepperoni and cheese and onions on it. The pizza wasn't bad for the price but it could have been cooked a little longer. The food isn't going to be exciting here as I don't have the budget for it. We also didn't have a kitchen to cook in so it wasn't a bad meal considering. The reason we didn't have a kitchen was because we were getting an over night bus to our next destination: Magnetic Island. The bus wasn't until midnight though so we retrieved our bags from the hostel luggage room and napped on the grass by the lagoon until it was time to board the bus. Thank goodness it wasn't raining but it was a tad chilly so I ended up with a pair of leggings under a pair of trousers and two jumpers on me. Luckily, the bus was warmer.