The Wet Tropics
While Jared's mum and sister were visiting we went with them to the Wet Tropics (beaches, rainforest, reef, etc). We decided to drive up the coast and made it to three major locations...Mission Beach, Port Douglas, and Cape Tribulation.
On the way to our first stop, Mission Beach, we decided to drive the "loose-your-lunch" winding road (which was aptly named) into Paluma National Range where we saw Big Crystal Creek and Little Crystal Creek. It was so hot and it looked so inviting so we stripped down to our swimwear for some swimming, jumping and sliding down the waterfall and everyone joined in the fun. We then stayed in Mission Beach for two nights. On day two I had booked a white-water rafting trip on the Tully River which was going to be a first time for Jared, his mum, and sister. On the way, we spotted a baby cassowary which is really really rare. Cassowaries are endangered birds but are very critical to the rainforest. They are about the size of a person! Then the rafting trip was a huge success too and I think everyone had a great time. We happened to have the best guide ever...he had so many tricks up his sleeve. Everyone was a great sport. He managed to captsize our raft on numerous occasions (on purpose, of course) and we got to try out "surfing" (getting the raft stuck under the rapids & waterfalls). We loved every opportunity to get out of the raft as well as it was even fun to body float down the river and a good chance to cool off. It was a full day and the only break being when we stopped for some lunch and to do some swimming and rock jumping. All in all, it was a great start to the trip except that we lost our underwater camera...so there went all the pictures of the waterfall swimming, cassowary, and rafting.
The next day we headed off to Port Douglas with a stop over in Cairns for lunch and a new camera. Jared had been wanting a new better dive camera anyway. Port Douglas was a beautiful resort town with pretty views along the drive and fabulous accomodation. We spent a few hours in the town doing a little shopping but with the heat (it is prime wet season and is very very hot!) we spent the next two days in the hotel pools which are some of the best we had ever seen. No wonder why as you can't use the beautiful beaches from September to May because of the deadly box jellyfish. Although, they don't infiltrate the Great Barrier so we could take a day trip to the reef where Ruth and Amanda could snorkel and Jared and I could dive. The diving was the best we have done so far...we saw tons of black tip reef sharks circling under the boat and got opportunities to touch a sea cucumber and anenome...and of course there are always tons of cool fish.
Lastly we went to check out Cape Tribulation, where the rainforest meets the reef. First you have to cross the Daintree River. We took a short croc cruise on the River before heading over to the other side but unfortunately didn't see any crocs. Cape Tribulation was very pretty but kind of annoying as you couldn't use any of the beaches (because of the box jellyfish, again) and it was sweltering hot in the sun. The rainforest walks were gorgeous and provided some cool shade but were just as miserable with all the mossies. Although we did spot some Archer fish which hunt by shooting water up out of the water to knock bugs off the trees above. After all we could handle, we grabbed some ice cream at the Daintree Ice Cream Company who make exotic flavors everyday. We tried the wattleseed, jackfruit, macadamia, and black sapot ice creams. Jackfruit was easily the favorite but all are worth the try. Then we were headed back to our treehouse for the night. Sleeping in a treehouse in the middle of the rainforest is highly recommended! They even put on a fabulous candle lit dinner and exotic brekkie for our last day.
One more big drive back to the start of our road trek and are holiday was almost over :(
On the way to our first stop, Mission Beach, we decided to drive the "loose-your-lunch" winding road (which was aptly named) into Paluma National Range where we saw Big Crystal Creek and Little Crystal Creek. It was so hot and it looked so inviting so we stripped down to our swimwear for some swimming, jumping and sliding down the waterfall and everyone joined in the fun. We then stayed in Mission Beach for two nights. On day two I had booked a white-water rafting trip on the Tully River which was going to be a first time for Jared, his mum, and sister. On the way, we spotted a baby cassowary which is really really rare. Cassowaries are endangered birds but are very critical to the rainforest. They are about the size of a person! Then the rafting trip was a huge success too and I think everyone had a great time. We happened to have the best guide ever...he had so many tricks up his sleeve. Everyone was a great sport. He managed to captsize our raft on numerous occasions (on purpose, of course) and we got to try out "surfing" (getting the raft stuck under the rapids & waterfalls). We loved every opportunity to get out of the raft as well as it was even fun to body float down the river and a good chance to cool off. It was a full day and the only break being when we stopped for some lunch and to do some swimming and rock jumping. All in all, it was a great start to the trip except that we lost our underwater camera...so there went all the pictures of the waterfall swimming, cassowary, and rafting.
The next day we headed off to Port Douglas with a stop over in Cairns for lunch and a new camera. Jared had been wanting a new better dive camera anyway. Port Douglas was a beautiful resort town with pretty views along the drive and fabulous accomodation. We spent a few hours in the town doing a little shopping but with the heat (it is prime wet season and is very very hot!) we spent the next two days in the hotel pools which are some of the best we had ever seen. No wonder why as you can't use the beautiful beaches from September to May because of the deadly box jellyfish. Although, they don't infiltrate the Great Barrier so we could take a day trip to the reef where Ruth and Amanda could snorkel and Jared and I could dive. The diving was the best we have done so far...we saw tons of black tip reef sharks circling under the boat and got opportunities to touch a sea cucumber and anenome...and of course there are always tons of cool fish.
Lastly we went to check out Cape Tribulation, where the rainforest meets the reef. First you have to cross the Daintree River. We took a short croc cruise on the River before heading over to the other side but unfortunately didn't see any crocs. Cape Tribulation was very pretty but kind of annoying as you couldn't use any of the beaches (because of the box jellyfish, again) and it was sweltering hot in the sun. The rainforest walks were gorgeous and provided some cool shade but were just as miserable with all the mossies. Although we did spot some Archer fish which hunt by shooting water up out of the water to knock bugs off the trees above. After all we could handle, we grabbed some ice cream at the Daintree Ice Cream Company who make exotic flavors everyday. We tried the wattleseed, jackfruit, macadamia, and black sapot ice creams. Jackfruit was easily the favorite but all are worth the try. Then we were headed back to our treehouse for the night. Sleeping in a treehouse in the middle of the rainforest is highly recommended! They even put on a fabulous candle lit dinner and exotic brekkie for our last day.
One more big drive back to the start of our road trek and are holiday was almost over :(
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