Shaunduvall's travel blogs:
|
|
  | |  |
Crumbs From Your Table
Entry 45 of 105 | show all | print this entry |
|
Tuesday 23rd November 2004
Road trip time! - hire a car, along with Dirk & Marco, to go to Cape Tribulation and the Atherton Tablelands. Relatively cheap car - AU$60 a day, though with thumping AU$1500 excess on insurance. I drive first day - havent driven in nearly 6 months but soon back into the swing of it.
Get a little lost, but find our way out of Cairns and head north, along the beautiful Captain Cook highway, which is a coastal road - with tropical rainforest reaching right down to the undeveloped beaches. You cant actually swim in the water during summer due to the jellyfish "stingers".
Onto Port Douglas, which reminds me of Naples in Florida - rich little town with expensive shops and restaurants
Go to Mossman Gorge, boulder strewn river, very pretty, but the rain has put us off swimming (because we will get wet.????), and spend a few hours walking the forest instead - though all the animals have hidden.
Cross the Daintree River by ferry, and then onto Cape Tribulation, as the weather worsens, along winding mountainous roads, with lots of signs warning us about flooding.
Finally read the agreement for the car...were not allowed to bring it across the ferry and north..Oops!
Stay at "Crocodylus" jungle kind of camp in the Rainforest, and it is now pouring down, and very very heavy!
Wednesday 24th November 2004
Wake up to beautiful view of the rainforest through the canvas window of our hut - dense rainforest right there in front of you - picture taken doesnt really do it justice.
Walk for a few hours in the rainforest, only spotting a wild (feral) pig, but still nice...then the rain starts again!
Onto Daintree discovery centre, where the rain is at its hardest, but climb the tower, walk the walkways, all the while getting soaked - the animals were far wiser and were probably tucked up nice and warm somewhere, as we didnt see any!
Onto Cow Bay beach - nice beach, but making it clear dont swim because of the Stingers - rain is too strong anyway!
Do night walk around camp - with poncho's and torches at hand, and see lots of dragon lizards, clinging to the sides of trees, but no tree kangaroos of Cassorwary's (kind of Emu)
Thursday 25th November 2004
Drove to Cape Tribulations beach - it was around here that Captain Cook's ship ran aground on a reef, where all his troubles began - which was very pretty....and not raining for once, and attempted to climb Mount Sorrow
Was a little put off when the sign said dont climb in wet conditions (it had been raining for days), it takes 7 hours, and you need 3-4 litres of water (I had two, Marco had half a litre, and a beer), so we agreed to see how it went.
Walked / Climbed for an hour, and then the heavens opened - and we gave up - despite my waterproof mac, got soaked on the way down, and my theory that you would be drier under the rainforest because of the tree canopy was totally disproved..
Dropped Marco off in Mossman - he had somebody to meet in Cairns, and then drove to the Atherton tablelands with Dirk, and stay in Atherton, quiet hick town, and visit the Curtain Fig - Fig tree that grows like a parasite on other trees, and in this case has grown to look like a curtain...guess you had to be there
Friday 26th November 2004
Did the waterfall circuit today, Milla Milla Falls, Zizie falls, then Elinjaa Falls - all very nice, but raining 90% of the time - so no swimming, and they werent quite as good as the falls I'd swum in a week or so ago.
Lots of walks in the rainforest, interspersed with half hour drives, to see the Red Cedar (500+ year old tree) - down a dirt road we were banned from driving down by our car hire company, the Cathedral Fig tree - you got it, a fig tree that looks like a cathedral, and then round the dirt road around Lake Tinaroo - nice lake created by a dam, apart from the sections where you can see dead tree trunks coming out of the water - kind of eerie then.
Stay in Yungaburra, another small town
Saturday 27th November
Return car, and our efforts to clean the mud from the car were exposed straight away by the car hire guy - obvious tell tale marks we hadnt noticed, but he let it go. Dirk then headed south, whilst I spent the day catching up - internet, clothes (they're all falling apart now) and just having a day doing nothing!
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by shaunduvall, from Australia or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
88 votes 
This is a top pick!
