Once again, started out the day walking down the beach and to the marina in Yorkey’s Knob. Very warm and humid – but – hey – we’re in the tropics! And we’re reminded of that every morning about 6 am when this bizarre bird starts singing – if you can call it singing. Sounds like a sick monkey!
Decided once again not to go to the Reef. While it appeared the wind had died down on shore, we weren’t certain about out on the reef, so we just chalked it up to bad luck and headed north to Daintree and the Rainforest.
Took us about an hour and a half on a fantastic drive up the coast. Beautiful scenery, twisty turny roads again, but well worth it for the views and the rainforest. We arrived in Daintree, which is a small little tourist outpost with a few gift shops, 2 restaurants and booking windows for all the different river and rainforest tours available. We had read about a rainforest walk called Tranquility Tours. Husband and wife team, walk through the forest to a waterfall, learn about the history of the property, etc. Sounded really fun – there was a 10:30 and 1:30 tour available. Unfortunately the 10:30 was sold out – we didn’t really want to wait for the 1:30, were thinking about going back into another town about 30 km away to walk a gorge, but then the tour booking agent talked us into a package deal where we got a Daintree River tour, lunch and the rainforest walk for a package price. Figured, when all the shooting was done, we got the lunch for free so we took it.
Turned out to be a great day in Daintree. The river tour was very fun – saw 2 crocodiles, learned all about them in the process: their body temperature controls everything, stomach, energy, reproduction, you name it; the females hold up better than the males because they don’t fight as much (go figure!); they are called salty dogs (so now I know where all those beach restaurant names come from!). Just a fun trip on the river. Came back for lunch which was really good – pan fried Barrimundi and the Daintree Delight – Crocodile wontons (yes, crocodile – and it tastes like chicken – what did you expect?), barrimundi spring rolls and sugar cane prawns. Both were excellent –and gave us our energy for the rainforest walk.
As it turns out, it was just the two of us on the tour. They didn’t have anyone else, so we ended up with a private tour with Di, one of the proprietors of Tranquility Tours. Di and her husband Craig bought about 100 acres of rainforest about 8 years ago to farm and to open a rental cottage (what they call self-accommodation). A few years later, while researching some information they found out about the original owners of the land, they decided to add the rainforest walk to try to impart their historical knowledge as well as teach people about the rainforest and the ecosystem.
It was a fascinating tour. The original owners of the land was a family from Paris who moved to Australia after being bilked by a con artist selling property in Papa New Guinea. They landed in Sydney then somehow sailed up the Daintree and purchased this property. The family lived on the land for quite a few years, but crop failure from floods, and pestilence, illness which took the lives of a few of their children and Maori attacks forced them to move back to Sydney and abandon their land. During the walk thought the forest, Di relayed the story as well as pointing out where the Chinese workers houses were located and the main family home. They’ve found quite a few artifacts from the family and are researching the details through a couple books a daughter and the wife have written.
In addition to discussing the history, Di also shared a lot of rainforest facts. Different vines, how they grow, ferns, edible plants, the oldest plant in the rainforest, the original Red Pine that started the entire development of the Daintree river and rainforest. It was a fabulous walk – it poured rain a couple times – it is a rainforest after all – but that just made it even better. We arrived at their waterfall at the end of the walk – it was just mind blowing! This huge waterfall on their property where Di swims every day. Just amazing to think that someone could own that! We could have stayed there all day.
As Di drove us back to our car down a 10km long gravel road through the farmland, we came upon a baby calf that had just been born that day. It could barely walk and still was wet from birth. Right on the side of the road walking (or trying to walk!) with it’s mom.
Left Daintree and headed back to our home away from home in Yorkey’s Knob. Went to dinner early as we knew we had to be up at 4 and out by 4:45 to catch our early morning flight to Brisbane. Went to the Marina which has a huge bar and restaurant. It’s a semi-fast food type place (which seems to be the rage over here). You walk in, grab a menu, sit at any table. When you are ready, you go to the counter and order and pay for your meal. They give you a number and you go back to your table with your number and they serve you when it’s ready. Drinks are ordered in the same way, but you take them away with you. Great meal, but kind of odd since you do half the work! At any rate, we sat outside under a huge tent and watched it pour down rain (that’s what you get when you come to Australia in the wet season!), and had a great time.
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