Daintree - Cape Trib

Loving the rainforest country, we drove up to Daintree village for a few nights of rest and relaxation.  And that is what we got.  The van park backed on to the river – where Ben and the kids took a cruise to see some more crocs.  (thanks to our neighbour Tony for shouting the trip!)  We sat around, did school work and played games for a day and a half.

Then time to move on, we drove up to Cape Tribulation, and found a neat little place to set up camp in the rainforest.  The discovery centre was a good visit.  We all walked along silently with an audio tour pressed to our ears until the novelty wore off.  (I had flashbacks to the funny “audio” tour we did at Cape Leeuwin lighthouse with the Bucknells)  But we did learn about poisonous seeds that the kids have been collecting at camp, as well as vines, strangler figs and lots and lots of trees.  No cassowaries were spotted, however the kids all sighted a big blue Ulysses butterfly flutter by, which was a real treat.   After the discovery centre we ducked in to view cow beach – and found a new friend who gave Nick and Larina a ride on her rope swing.  Nick took to being jungle boy well.  

what to do on a beach where you can't swim? Cape Trib

On the way home, Ben and I thought we would reward the kids with an ice cream from the Daintree Ice Cream Company, and had talked it up all day.  You can imagine the excitement as we pulled into the car park.  Jumping out, we joined the queue quickly to discover as we approached the counter that each serve of ice cream was $6.50 in a little bowl, with flavours like “wattleseed” and one I couldn’t even pronounce.  Ben and I glanced at each other as we downed our order to just 2 serves, and attempted to explain to the three children with big eyes why.  There were some attempts made to feel grateful as we sat down to enjoy our wonderful treat….  After a few nibbles, they scoffed the mango flavoured scoop, and decided the joy of ice cream was not worth putting up with the flavours we had.  What a terrible treat.  We will have to make it up to them at the next ice cream shop.

ice cream delight....or not

The rainforest certainly lived up to its name while we were here – our last day and night teamed with rain, and the humidity was HIGH.  We managed to get through a fair amount of school work so at least we felt productive, (I think Sam covered an entire unit of maths in one day!)  and another walk through the forest.  We are really loving these walks, with so much to see.  To top off an uneventful day, we cooked dinner at the camp kitchen, where Sam took a fall and sliced his knee.  Our first instincts suggested “stitches”, but when Ben came running up with his first aid box, we had stopped the blood and managed to recognise that a few butterfly band aids might be good enough.  Ben did perfect first aid, and his knee began to heal well.  I suspect Sam was a little disappointed, having wanted to join Dom in the club of “injuries requiring stitches”.

Jungle girl/Tinkerbell?  designed by the boys...

Our last morning – we packed up in the rain and stopped in at the Discovery centre again.  Sam and Ben spent time with “piggy” – Professor Peter Pavlov, while Nick watched him from the safety of the TV room.  We then drove to Mossman gorge for another enjoyable walk through the rainforest.  Larina received many compliments on her appropriate hiking attire – a pink tule skirt over her swimmers.  (At least we had managed to convince her to wear boots!)  With all the attention she is getting, we are never going to get her out of it!

 
















Finally we move south a little more towards Cairns and drive the most beautiful road along the surprisingly calm water.  It was a perfect afternoon for the drive with the distant, blue mountains disappearing into clouds, and the grey ocean a true reflection of the grey sky.  So peaceful.  Ahhhhh.  Who cares about the fact that it is 5pm and we are yet to find our ground to set up camp.