AND WE'RE BACK!! (PART II)

April 2  - Day 2 of the forced march of family fun in Cairns saw us off on our tour of the Daintree rainforest.  It seemed like the middle of the night when we met the tour company’s rather imposing 4x4 out in front of the hotel, but that was probably only because we were all still wiped out from our exertions of the day before.  Our driver, Matthew, was absolutely hilarious and we learned a bunch of new Aussie-isms from him.  Such classics as “We don’t get drunk, we just get more fascinating” and “I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse and chase the jockey”.  His running commentary was not only informative, it was hilarious and if we were lucky, even a bit off-colour. 

Our first stop of the morning was a great drive up the coast with some lovely views of the ocean.  We stopped for a river cruise in crocodile-infested waters – yes, that was actually the draw.  Liam got to hold a baby crocodile, and it’s true, when they’re little, even the scary animals are cute.  In a way.  Anyway, our guide told us that we may not see much due to the high water from the recent cyclone, but we managed to see an older crocodile and a baby croc sunning itself on a tree branch.  The guide told us that only about 1% of crocodile babies make it to 2 years old, so we just nicknamed him “the one-percenter”.  This was a feature of this area of Australia that I had not properly appreciated.  There are a ton of crocodiles – there were warning signs about not swimming or even getting too close to the edge of the water in virtually every area which we visited.  I had wondered a bit about the beach which ran along the main road into town in Cairns and why nobody seemed to be on it.  Mystery solved.

After the croc-watching boat trip, we got back in the vehicle for another drive deeper into Daintree, where we headed off for a walk through the rainforest.  It was quite interesting to find out that many of the plants here are virtually unchanged from the plants which covered the area almost 280 million years ago.  Matthew knew a great deal about the local plants, including their Latin names (show-off).  I particularly liked the “Wait-a-While” plant (bottom picture below), so named because once you get ensnared in one of its long tendrils, you simply cannot get out.  Seriously, this stuff is really nasty – there was a story about a girl getting the skin peeled from her arm like a banana by this plant, but since this is a family blog, I will skip the gory details.  Other than the threats of imminent danger from the local flora, the walk through the forest was absolutely beautiful.  We were also incredibly lucky and got to see three cassowaries in the forest.  It is apparently quite rare to see even one, so that was a real treat.

After the walk, we went off to an animal rescue centre for lunch (and no, that is not as sick as it sounds).  While lunch was cooking, we got a chance to feed kangaroos and wallabies.  These were all animals who had been injured or abandoned but were not able, for whatever reason, to return to the wild after they had healed.  It was such a great experience and a real opportunity for the kids to interact with animals they would not otherwise get to see in such close quarters.  We left there to visit a rather spiffy creek in the forest, where most people on the tour (including Pete and the kids) ventured in for a dip.  This made me a bit nervous, given that the crocodile warning signs were present a little bit further down the creek, but I figured that the crocodiles would probably head straight for the meatier American tourists first, so no problem.  I had decided that I would rather stay dry after being immersed in water most of the day before, but ironically the heavens decided to open up with a torrential downpour while everyone was in the water and it was a close call as to who was wetter when it was done.  Naturally, that was the only time that it rained all that day!

While we were there, Matthew and another tour guide prepared a selection of exotic fruits for us to try.  These included papaya, pineapple, lychees, and these really amazing fruits called custard apples.  Once we were done with afternoon tea, we headed off for another drive further north to Cape Tribulation, named by James Cook after he managed to crash his ship on the reef there.  It was an interesting area – it bills itself as the place where the reef meets the rainforest, and it’s true.  You could literally have one foot on the dirt and one foot on the sand and be standing in two separate World Heritage sits at the same time.  We took a quick walk on the beach and were stymied as we came across piles of sand which were scattered all over the beach which looked, quite frankly, like piles of worm poop.  Surprisingly, we were not really wrong about that.  It turns out that there is a worm which inhabits the beach which is about the circumference of your thumb and about a metre long.  It burrows into the sand by eating it on the way down, and then passing it out of its body through the hole back on to the beach.  So, worm poop.  There were also these very tiny balls of sand scattered in neat patterns around holes in the sand which are made by crabs burrowing in, rolling up the sand in their mouths and literally tossing the sand balls back on to the beach.  This was much more arty than the sand worms, but not nearly as cool as being able to say they were poop.

Anyway, after a brief stop at an ice cream factory on the way back (which served some very oddly flavoured ice cream, I am advised) we made the long drive back along miles and miles of sugar cane fields back to Cairns.  We are off again tomorrow to Brisbane for a short visit and a tour of the koala sanctuary.  This should be great for more Kodak moments!