April 17,2009: The Daintree Rainforest
Today we began our two day trip to the Daintree Rainforest. We went with an organized tour group called Jungle Tours. Ben picked us up aroun 7:00 in the morning and we began our drive. We pass Kurunda National park along the way and drove along Captain Cook Highway. It was a very scenic drive and an awesome experience! Here are some pictures:
And again
Our first real stop of the day was at the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary. Here, Meg got to hold a koala and we both got to pet a snake and a baby crocodile. We also got to feed the kangaroos and emus. Our second stop was at Mossman Gorge where we got to swim in the Mossman River. Megan didn't want to get in buy I did. The water was freezing, but refreshing!
This emu did NOT want his picture taken!
I swam to the rock in the middle of the river-it was quite a feat because the current was so strong!
The next stop on our agenda was a picnic lunch before our Daintree River Cruise. On this cruise, we were supposed to see some crocodiles. We did see one-Fat Albert. He was huge! 5 metres long and just laying on the side waiting to kill. These crocs have actually killed humans before-a 5 year old boy died about 2 months ago, so I'm serious when I say they are waiting to kill. They decided to let the croc responsible for his death live because they want to keep the area as natural as possible.
You think you're safe....
Until you see Fat Albert!
The croc tour was pretty fun-I was contemplating throwing something in the water so I could see the crocs attack it, but my instincts told that probably wasn't a good idea. One of our last stops of the day was at Alexandra Lookout. Once again, another beautiful view of the Daintree.
Last stop of the day was at Cape Tribulation. Because we were doing a night tour, we got to stay overnight in the Beach House. It was situation in the middle of the rainforest, minutes away from Cape Tribulation Beach. You could NOT ask for a better hostel. That night, we took some pretty awesome pictures. The beach, (like everything in Australia) was so beautiful.
The Beach House