Daintree National Park
Trip Start
Jun 18, 2008
1
57
72
Trip End
Ongoing
Daintree,
Queensland,
Australia
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Daintree was the furthest north we would go in Queensland. Soon after, the road becomes unsealed and undriveable by 2wd vehicles. When the Wet finally comes, the "roads" disappear under floods and it all gets a bit messy.
Luckily, we came at the end of the Dry season, when the crowds have mostly gone home, the weather is still nice, and the roads still driveable.
Like we have done in most of the area, we mooched around more Rainforest, looked out for more Cassowaries, and spent more time combing beaches
Cane Toad - don't eat it
. We spent all morning at Mossman Gorge, part of Daintree National Park. We got there very early in the morning, and walked the full rainforest circuit, ending up by a small creek watching some Jungle Perch in the crystal clear waters. We watched birds and butterflies flutter around, whilst Water Monitors pranced about looking scary and eating Earthworms. With the Sun filtering through the trees, it was all very nice.
Then on the way back, we hit the tourist bus circuit, and the place was rammed. But all they did was walk to a swing bridge, take photos, then get back on the bus. How boring is that? Everything that is to be seen is 1km up the track. Get some decent shoes on, get walking. Simple. The bridge was dull. Who will look at that photo again?
With that done, we soon found there wasn't a lot more to do, at least not without paying a fee. Most of the so called Rainforest resorts nearby cost an arm and a leg to walk around their private gardens, and the boat cruises were something we did up in the Northern Territory, so we didn't really care for them. So we sort of just drove around with not much to do.
It was our own fault - we forgot to get the Daintree National Park information leaflet from the internet, and the "tourist information" centres did nothing but sell tours, so didn't know about decent walking tracks in the national park
Cheeky Bandicoot
.We ended up instead at Wonga Beach, in a delightful caravan park, with direct beach access and some really cool Peacocks strutting around. Oh and some cheeky Bandicoots rooting through the bins.
We spent the afternoon in a nice swimming pool, with me teaching Helen to dive from a rock formation next to the pool, which she did very well. Not bad for someone who could barely swim before she came to Australia. There was also a large Frog in the bottom of the pool, so I swam around with him before helping him get out of the pool. He then watched us for a while before hopping off.
On my way back from the bathroom, late at night, I finally stumbled upon the Frogs unpopular cousin, the Cane Toad. Introduced from the Carribean to eat insects that ate Sugarcane, they soon spread all over the place. Problem is, they are poisonous to things that eat them - everything from Foxes and Dingoes to Crocodiles - so they are wiping out a fair amount of native wildlife.
And they are ugly too.
And that was our time in the Daintree area. Most of the attractions didn't appeal too much to us, or they were very similar to things we had seen before. Plus the extended "r 'n' r" time was really needed.
Sorry for the really dull entry, I thought it would be better than this!
