Cape Tribulation and Daintree Rainforest

Leaving Cairns we headed north to reach our furthest northern spot for our travels on the East Coast, Cape Tribulation. On our way up we encountered a vehicle ferry and literally thought we were lost. We were not expecting a vehicle ferry by any means but after consulting our route we were in fact on the right path. I guess we didn't do our research very well here! Oh well because the ferry was running constantly and was literally to just cross a river. 

We found PK's Jungle Village and decided to park there for the night for $25 in our campervan. It was already dark out and we were ready to eat some of the good food we picked up at the farmers market that morning for dinner. 

The next morning we woke up and got a move on. We drove up to the Cape Tribulation lookout and walk at Kulki, a mere 1.2 kilometers to a beautiful lookout over the cape. 

The special thing about Cape Tribulation is that it is where the rainforest meets the ocean. It is a cool thing to see. The drive up to the cape is windy with many speed bumps built up to slow you down. Every where there are signs for Cassowary Crossing. 

These birds, although we didn't see any, are about the size of ostrich and can be aggressive. They are apparently an endangered species and one of the few animals who germinate certain flora and fauna. Their extinction will cause a ripple effect through the rainforest so they are wildly protected. 

We did a couple short rainforest walking tracks Kulki, Marrdja Boardwalk, and Jindalba Boardwalk. 

The last 2 boardwalk tracks were similar in vegetation but if I had to choose one, it would be the Jindalba Boardwalk. If I were to choose just one of the three it would be the Kulki track due to the fact that this was the only track that actually showed the most interesting part of this area, the jungle meeting the ocean. 

However, this track is the furthest north on the road before it turns unsealed so we didn't venture any further north. 

A personal note on the Daintree Rainforest...it is beautiful in its own right, however coming from New Zealand and all the bush walks I did, I think I could have skipped this portion of Australia. However, if you have the time and you are only doing Australia, this forest is well worth the visit. 

On our way back south from the Cape, we stopped on the opposite side of the vehicle ferry and embarked on the Solar Whisper for an hour river cruise to see some crocodiles up close and personal. We ended up seeing four crocs in our tour, a hatchling, a 1 year old croc, a 25-30 year old female croc named Beatrice, and lastly, Gump who is a medium size male croc about 40 years of age pictured below. 

These crocodiles are all salt water crocs which are the largest type of crocodiles. The largest croc found in the river we were boating was 8.9 meters in length. The average is a mere 5-6 meters...no thanks! Also, we saw quite a bit of other wildlife including Heron and Rainbow Bee Eaters that were playing in the water bathing themselves. 

We continued South towards Cairns in order to be close for out Great Barrier Reef tour we had booked for the following day. We ended up at Ellis Beach Bungalows right on the beach as it had been recommended to us by a few people as a good place to camp just out of town. 

The place was beautiful. Definitely worth the $32 for the night!