Hot, High and Tipsy: May 27 To Daintree Rain Forest

Tina here...

Our guide Clayton picks us up bright and early at 7:30 for this day's adventure. Clayton knew his stuff about the rainforest and the evolution of the earth and species of the rain forest. Within the first 15 minutes of our trip to the Daintree Rainforest, our heads were full of thoughts about how the single celled animals, fish, reptiles and birds evolved. Dates that go so far back it's hard to imagine, but we were going to be visiting the oldest rain forest in the world, so it was important that we had a basis for appreciation.

First stop, Clayton drops us off in the hands of Mitch, the boat drive who knew everything about the Daintree River. The cruise takes us through silent backwaters where crocodiles can be seen basking on the muddy banks. Krimhilde was not too keen about this and immediately started quizing Mitch about how dangerous it was for us to be going out to where the crocs were...we all get a chuckle as Krim is always trying to weigh every possible danger there may be ahead.

Krim to Mitch (disclaimer....summary from memory, but not all inclusive and not absolutely accurate): "Can the crocs tip the boat? What if a lot of crocs got under the boat, can they tip it? Has anyone been killed by a croc? How many? What time frame? What's dangerous here? Are the birds dangerous?"

The first croc we saw was a baby which was only a couple of months old. The floods had pushed the baby croc into the big river, when normally at this young age they would be in the smaller rivers well hidden under foliage by the shore. The baby croc was in a place in the open that birds could fly down an get him or other crocs could eat him. Things were not looking well for this croc's long term survival.

Jim, Krim and Clyde are scanning the waters for crocs while Mitch shared all kinds of information about the big guys that frequented the lake. He knew almost all the names of the crocs. See Elizabeth below...she is about 10 feet long.

The next croc seemed to be watching us from the water...although Mitch said that this croc was quite cold and was conserving energy, we liked that idea. If he was cold, he would not move very fast...

Now, this is where our excitement began. While watching this croc we took a number of pictures and our boat driver got us quite close... after taking pictures from the back of the boat, I turned to walk forward. Everyone's eyes were still on the croc. As I walked forward, just a foot away from the boat was the largest croc ever with his face laying across a log staring right up at us. I pointed and said, there is another one. At that, the croc rolled forward off the log to where both Mitch and I could clearly see how massively large this croc was. I do regret not getting a picture of this huge croc, but it all happened so fast. Mitch told us a crock that size could clearly propel quite fast and high for pray, so when Clyde stuck his head over the edge of the boat looking in the water saying, "Where did he go?" Mitch, with a very worried look on his face said, "I didn't see that one. We need to leave." EEK.... No more chuckling when Krim grills the guides for safety concerns!

Clayton awaits us at the other end of the river. We jump off the boat and back into our van. Our next stop...the Daintree World Heritage protected rainforest. Our journey takes us up the beautiful Alexandra Range passing through rainforest and on to our first stop deep in the rainforest at the Jindalba boardwalk. Here we are immersed into protected forests and a walk way to view ancient plants and amazing wildlife. We did not see any Cassowaries, the giant flightless bird related to the Emu, but we did see a dragon lizard! It was easy to imagine that we were back in the dinosour era, the trees looked like something right out of Jurassic Park. Did I mention that this is the oldest rainforest on earth?

It's amazing to see plants and trees fighting for sunlight!

See the Praying Mantis below?

Next up is tea or coffee and lemingtons, an Aussie special, made from lemony flavored sponge cake, layer of chocolate frosting rolled in coconut shavings. Yum!!

After tea, we head for the magical Cape Tribulation beach, this is where the rainforest meets the ocean. The beach is full of little crabs which make sand art for all to see as they tunnel under the sand for protection.

Oh wait, Clayton decides to ask us to do a jump picture...all of us together? It took 15 minutes, lost track of the number of trys, but we all needed a nap afterwards...We are pretty sure Clayton won't ask "mature" travelers to attempt this again...

Lunch time and what a fabulous lunch it is. Not only is the food great, but the resturant is a bit of a private zoo..

Lunch being finished, petting being done, it was off to find some exotic ice cream and then a fun ride back to the hotel through some roads flooding from the rain.

Tomorrow will be an early morning as we load up our traveling home for our next adventure...it's off to the Great Barrier Reef at 5 AM tomorrow. Thanks Clayton and Australia Luxury Escape for another fine day!

Posted with Blogsy