Day 56 - Daintree Rainforest

Today was pretty awesome.  We woke up to the crashing waves and enjoyed a little stroll along the beach to watch the sun rising over the ocean, that was really weird.  We had to drag our beach boy away to make him eat breaky and when we went to leave to go for a drive, Tori was halfway up the beach collecting small rocks and shells.  We got many moans and groans as we drive out of they park as they all just wanted to hang out at the beach and work on the projects they had set for themselves!!!!!  We were a bit sad that there were no kids here for them, but it doens't seem to bother them.  All the grey nomads are so friendly, Cody came back to the van to tell us we have to go over to the meeting area with our drinks at 5pm as someone had invited him, "All I need to take is a drink", he tells us!!!!

Working on getting the husk off the coconut.

Anyway, the original plan today was to drive to Cooktown.  We thought it would be a fairly big drive, maybe 2 hours, but we just weren't in a hurry this morning to get up early and get going but thought we could still do it anyway.  However, as we headed closer to the Daintree we began to discover a whole new world that needed exploring further.  And as we got closer to Cape Tribulation we also learnt  from one of the locals that from Cape Trib, it was probably another 3 hours drive to Cooktown, due to the road conditions, so we decided just to spend the day exploring this area.  Cooktown would have to wait for another day.

On the barge, in the car, going over the Daintree River.

The drive up is just amazing.  The whole rain forest just closes in around you as you twist and turn along the windy road.  One minute, you see a sheer drop down to the bottom of the rain forest, the next minute through the trees, you catch glimpses of the beach.  We are amazed that how the beach can be at the bottom of a sheer drop down the side of the road and the next minute, you are level with it again.  We stop at a lookout and walk out onto a small bay, the hills either side have lush rain forest that grows right down to the waves.  It is hard to imagine this is their dry season, the ferns and palms just growing wildly amazes us.

Cape Tribulation

We decide to stop at PK's for lunch.  A really cool little pub with great accommodation and lots of backpackers.  Mazza, we think this is your old stomping ground.  It is also the same place all you boys stopped at when you did the Cape York ride.  So Glen reminisces a bit and can't believe he is back again so soon. 

After this we stop at a Butterfly museum.  This place was very interesting, an amazing collection of butterflies and insects that one man had collected over a 30 year time frame, from all over the world.  Thousands of different species as well as live stick incests and tarantulas.  The kids just thought it was awesome.

We then headed back to the Daintree Village.  A small little town with some great little souvenir shops.  The kids parted with some of their money that was burning a whole in their pocket, then we headed home.  Making sure we had time for the children to head down the beach and work on their projects.  It is so windy here at the moment, but is doesn't bother them at all.  We have set the tv up using the aerial, as the satellite doesn't work through all the trees here, I wanted to see Sam Stosur on the news......how awesome was that!!! Anyway, Glen and I chill in the van watching the news, while the kids are at the beach.