On our third day in Cairns, we went on a tour of the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation with Active Tropics Explorer. We were picked up early in the morning and first drove about an hour and half on the bus to Mossman Gorge. There, we went to the cultural center and learned a little about the aboriginal people who live in the area and then walked through a bit of the rainforest to the gorge, a small waterfall, and a very bouncy suspension bridge. We didn’t have much time to change into swimsuits, so I didn’t want to get wet, but some people did swim in the river. It was a really beautiful area though, so I could still appreciate the time we did spend there.
Our next stop was at the Daintree River, where we took a river cruise to try to spot some crocodiles. We did see a few, and the boat driver was really good about spotting them and bringing the boat closer so we could all get a good view. The whole trip our tour guide had been telling us stories of people who had been eaten by these crocodiles, so we were all careful to stay inside the boat. You definitely don’t want to mess with these huge reptiles, but our tour guide did tell us “smart people don’t get eaten by crocodiles,” so as along as you’re not doing anything crazy you should be okay.
After crossing the river, we drove to Cape Tribulation to have lunch and enjoy the beach for a little bit. Cape Tribulation is pretty remarkable because it’s the only place on Earth where two World Heritage Sites exist side by side, the Wet Tropics of Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef. The beach was very beautiful, but in Queensland you don’t really want to swim in the ocean because of the crocodiles.
Cape Tribulation beach
After lunch we drove to the Mardja Boardwalk (which means Rainforest Boardwalk in the language of the aboriginal people who live there). Our tour guide took us on a walk and told us about a lot of the plants and animals that live in the Daintree Rainforest, which is actually the oldest rainforest in the world. He pointed out trees that grow long tubes that are filled with clean water, giant ginger plants that are ten times stronger than the ginger that we use for cooking, small ants that apparently taste like lemon (although I did not test this), and many other interesting plants and animals.
This plant was fascinating because of it’s shape. It’s a strangler fig, which, as you can imagine, strangles another tree. It grew around the tree until it’s roots hit the ground, the tree began to fall over, and then the inside tree died and rotted away, leaving just the strangler fig’s interesting shape with lots of holes.
On the way back to Cairns we stopped to get ice cream and then went to a beautiful lookout area before driving back a couple hours to drop everyone back off. It was a fully packed day, but we got to see a lot of different parts of Queensland and learn a ton about why the area is so significant.
Hammond Adventures 