We did stop in at a pharmacy where we asked specifically for Sudafed. Yes, I forgot to mention the progress of my cold, which hasn’t been too terrible but has progressed as they normally do, from the sore throat to the stuffy nose to the cough. Well, I am in the stuffy nose and nearing the cough stage so we asked for something to help that. The pharmacists kind of grill you when you want medicine. I guess that’s how socialized medicine works. The pharmacists act like nurses so people don’t go to the doctor as much or something. It’s like, “Dude, I know how a cold works and this is the medicine I need. Don’t throw Vitamin C in my face.” But, he didn’t and I got what I needed.
From Port Douglas, we drove out to a place up the road called Mossman Gorge. The rainforest is full-fledged here so that was pretty exciting. We even passed a ‘cassowary crossing’ sign and walked a bit from our car park to take a picture by it.
There is a pretty decent-sized river running through Mossman and the park provides walks for you to view it and the rainforest around it. It was really pretty hot so we were anxious to get in the water. After my day of snorkeling and my day of swimming in falls and lakes I wasn’t too keen on donning the swimsuit again but I had changed my mind once reaching the gorge so Nick and I suited up there and headed to an area where we could get in!
It was so dang cold, the kind where it actually hurts to get in! Nick was brave, once again, and got in faster than me. Then he actually took video of me getting in and was laughing at me the whole time. It was really so cold, I was suffering.
Once I got in, though, it wasn’t too bad. We explored the area a little, swimming upstream toward a little falls. I swam across in order to get on the falls and get my picture taken and, unfortunately, banged up my knee on some rocks I couldn’t see. I got my pictures on the little falls and banged my other knee on the way back across the river, haha. Now with my wounded toe from snorkeling and my two banged up knees, I am doing pretty good on battle wounds from this trip. I’ve even got a cold to boot!
We went further downstream – you had to be careful of the current as it was pretty swift in some areas – and explored a bit. I am trying to come up with a name for what I love to do, climbing and jumping on rocks in a river, especially since I have been doing a lot of that here. I spotted a perfect rock for lounging and decided I would soak up the sun and get a tan. So I took a little nap there, tanning both sides about 20 minutes, just listening to the stream and the people – it was very crowded probably because of ANZAC day – making pained sounds due to the frigid water. Nick went back to the shore to read his book while I tanned.
I wanted to stay longer and swim a bit more – the water was actually refreshing after tanning all that while – but we really hadn’t been able to eat much for breakfast and had no food for lunch and it was going on 1pm. So, we headed back down to Port Douglas to go to the one grocery store we saw open that day, which didn’t open until 1pm anyway.
The place was packed! Everyone knew this was the only place to get food! We were walking into the store and this guy outside asked, “Have you guys eaten lunch yet?” That kind of freaked me out, like, what are you trying to sell me something? We said no and he said, “Well you probably should because there is a huge queue in there!” Yeah, they say queue, not line. And there was a big line but we got out just fine and with some food for our next few days of camping in the rainforest!
We drove up to Daintree Village, maybe about a half hour, and the drive reminded me a lot of Hawaii! We had the rainforest on our left and beach on our right! There was a really high peak in the distance though, something that looked much higher than Oahu mountains.
At Daintree Village, we boarded a Crocodile Express river cruise boat with about 50 seats and a canopy on top. The guy running the tour, maybe in his late 50s, was a nice fellow who gave us a discount on the tour since we were his first customers from Hawaii. He waited for a few more customers but ended up with a small group in the end, maybe 12 of us total. While we waited, he gave us a photo album of all the animals he had photographed over the years. They were really awesome pictures and I hoped we would see some of these animals on our tour!
Well, it started out a little disappointing. The guide kept taking us to spots and saying, “Now, there was a crocodile here about an hour ago,” or “There was a snake here earlier,” and “There was a kingfisher here on our last tour.” I was starting to wonder if we would see anything or just hear about everyone else seeing something!
We finally did spot a crocodile swimming along in the river though. He wasn’t a huge one – Nick really wanted to see a big one, which the guides even have names for like Elizabeth and Fat Albert – but he was still about six feet long or so. He stayed in the water though so we only saw the top of him.
What else did we see? We spotted a kingfisher – those squat birds with the long beaks that hang out on branches waiting for fish all day – but he was pretty far away. We saw some owls too but they were behind quite a bit of shrubbery so they were hard to spot. And we saw a snake too, hanging out up in the trees. The guide steered the boat right into the tree, with the branches literally sticking into my face, asking “Do you see the snake?” I’m thinking, ‘Um, no, but I hope he does not fall out of the tree onto my lap!’ I got up out of the branches and moved to where I could see him. I was moving around the boat the whole time, actually, taking pictures and getting the best view. I was glad it was such a small group.
One of the coolest features of the tour were the little swallows that flew all around the boat as we went along. It was nearing dusk so they were out to eat and stayed near the boat the whole way through, about an hour. So it was almost like we were riding in some enchanted boat or something, though the crocodiles in the water took a little bit of that enchantments out. In fact, I kept envisioning a crocodile popping out of the water to grab my arm as I leaned over the boat to take pictures!
Our guide was kind of funny telling little jokes along the way and stories and facts too but he was really hard to understand because he talked so fast and slurred his words. So we would smile and nod sometimes when we really didn’t know what he had just said. When we were watching the crocodile in the water, he started passing along a crocodile head without saying anything. Nick didn’t react but when he put it up to the lady in front of him, she freaked out. What a mean joke!
So it was a pleasant tour even though we didn’t see as much as we wanted to. Fortunately, we got a deal where we could take their other tour at the other end of the river without paying any extra. So we planned to do that tour on our way out of the rainforest.
It was getting dark soon so we headed to our campsite, the last camping site of our trip! We had to cross a ferry with our car, which is usually about $20 roundtrip but they are running it for free at the moment to try and attract more visitors. Yay for the free ferry! We just drove right on, moved across, and drove off, never even exiting our car. Sweet!
The drive to our site was a little longer than I expected because it was so windy. But we were deep in the rainforest now, with the ocean peaking up every now and then on the other side of the road.
We got to our site around 6pm and, surprise surprise, there was somebody in it! What is with people wanting our campsites!? Well, they had two signs coming into the site saying you needed a permit to camp there, which I had reserved, you better believe it, so I didn’t feel too bad rolling down my window and telling those guys they needed to get out! It was a lot more packed than when this happened on Kangaroo Island so I was not about to camp elsewhere and take someone else’s spot.
Well, they packed up pretty quick – okay, I was feeling a little bad since it was pretty much dark at that point and now they were not sure what to do and they were obviously from some country like Germany or something so maybe they were confused on the rules and there really is nowhere else to camp nearby – and we set up our tent and got settled in and ate our little dinner inside. No, no cold soup. Not doing that again!
Now this camping experience was completely different than our camping experiences down South. Instead of cuddling up to ward off the cold, we were stripping down to escape the heat! It was so hot and humid outside and the two of us in our little tent warmed things up even more! So it was a little uncomfortable and borderline unbearable at times.
I stayed up to right for the blog a bit and then headed to bed, planning to get up and hike the next day! It rained during the night but we were able to stay dry.
Pictures:
Picture by the cassowary crossing sign: check!
Mossman Gorge...
On the rocks at Mossman Gorge, after banging up my knee!
A view of the shore along the Daintree River, taken from our river cruise boat.
Do you see the green tree snake?
Another view of the Daintree River.
Our friend, the crocodile.
Picture by the kangaroo sign: check!
...and double check!
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