Forget the sunrise this morning! We were up at 4:30am and on the road by 5:20am. We had a boat to catch in the Daintree that left at 6:30am!
Daintree River Tours was our morning destination!
So we clamber out of bed and some goddess-forsaken hour of the morning, have a quick breakfast and manage to get on our way by quarter past five. We even took a photo of the clock to show we were driving out of Port Douglas at 5:20am.
As we got to the Daintree area the sun was just stating to creep over the horizon. We found the jetty in the Daintree Village but there was no-one there and no signage about parking. We drove back to the shops and there was one other bloke parked there. He was our guide for the morning, Chris, and he told us where to meet him when he found the others that were going on the tour.
Now the tour is supposed to be in the early hours to catch the various birds and reptiles when they least expect it. Chris told us we might see a croc or two or maybe some snakes. When the rest of the tour turned up I was surprised they all had their own binoculars. Chris loaned us some so we'd fit in. It turns out, we'd scored the local bird watching fanatics. And Chris sure knows his birds! I don't know what I enjoyed more: cruising up and down the Daintree river and enjoying the serenity of being the only people out at the time - or the excitement the rest of the folks exhibited when they finally spotted the Azure Kingfisher Chris had been banging on about all morning!
We didn't see a crocodile. Although a bus driver on a tour then next day explained why. You need a cold night and a low tide for the best croc spotting opportunities. The cold night will mean the Croc's need to soak up extra sun to get going in the morning so they sit out on the banks. If the tide is low - more bank and easier Croc spotting.
We did see a snake or two! :) And we got some beautiful scenery shots and even a bird or two. "A bird" is as accurate as I can be. The rest of the tour folks banged on about carious calls and the difference in plumage between males and females of the various species. One bloke even pointed out the colour of the band of feathers around some birds eye!
I just remember that Chris puts a list of everything we spot on their webpage! So if you really want to know what we saw - check out http://www.daintreerivertours.com.au/Jul08.htm and look down the column of the 2nd! :)
After our Bird Watching Expedition we saddled up the hire car and headed further north.
There is a lot of Sugar Cane grown in the Cairns area and we passed a whole lot near the Daintree Village. We stopped and got photos because the stuff is a lot bigger than I imagined. The cane was about 3 or 4 metres tall if you count the flower on the top of the cane. We even saw a few of the trains that run up and down the coast to haul the cut cane off to the processing plants.
There is no bridge across the Daintree River. We had to cross on the Ferry. I remember when I was a kid and I had a little picture book about a Ferry that caught caught in a storm. The Ferry in that book looked like a big tugboat and all the cars went on the bottom level and the people on the top. This Ferry only had on level! In fact it was really just a huge rectangular barge on a chain that it used to pull itself back and forwards across the river. I was amazed by the number of cars and buses they squeezed onto it! There were three lanes of vehicles and I think there was room for about 5 or 6 cars in each lane maybe more - we weren't allowed out of the car on the Ferry so I couldn't really see.
Once you are across the river you are in the Daintree proper! "Dense" is good word to use to descrive the rain forest up here! We stopped at a number of beaches along the coast. They all started to look the same after a while. Beautiful blue skies and ocean, clean sand and rain forest all the way down to the shore.
Bel had her first major disappointment. There was some show or book when she was little that was set near Cape Tribulation "where the rainforest meets the see" and she was looking forward to getting there and seeing. Sadly, the book/show lied. :) The is usually a bloody great expanse of sand separating the rainforest from the sea! They are called "beaches"!
Our first real stop in the Daintree was the Discovery Centre. Here's a tip - don't go. It's nice but expensive - and there are better places that are free! Sure you don't get the virtual tour guide telling you about the shape of the nuts in the various rainforest trees and how you might spot a Cassowary (which we didn't) - but up the road from the Discovery Centre we found a Boardwalk the wound it's way through 1.2km of Rainforest that was as good or better than anything at the Discovery Centre.
One good thing about the Discovery Centre, although I don't think it was worth the admission price, was the Tower. There is a huge tower, about 34 metres from memory but I could be wrong, in the middle of the centre and that is well worth the climb. Great views from the top although we didn't see any Ulysses Butterflies hanging about the Rainforest canopy.
So after the Discovery Centre we stopped at Dubuji Boardwalk. That was the place that outshone the Discovery Centre and didn't cost a cent! We spent about an hour wandering around there and got some great photos. There was one section where a giant grass grew over the fence. It was much taller than me but looked like ordinary lawn - only huge. We pretended to be in "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" for a little while before moving on!
We visited more beaches including Cape Tribulation, Thornton Beach, Myall Beach and Cow Bay. We had lunch at Myall Beach and Bel almost got eaten by a Lace Monitor that was about two and a half feet long! I've never seen Bel get up on a table so fast. The people around us tried to put money in her pants until they realised she was panicking not dancing. (Actually - the chick on the next table was the only one to end up on the table and she carried on like a pork chop even though she was about 5 times further away from the lizard than Bel was!)
We stopped at another beach on the way home. Thornton Beach I think and after pigging out on Dorito's and Salsa I had a little snooze on the beach. Bel took the opportunity to stuff the bag of left over Doritos up my shirt and stick the Salsa jar on my belly and take some photos of me. Nice. :p
After my nanna nap, we headed back to Port Douglas. In spite of the noisy band in the pub across the road - I slept like a log that night! :)