Cape Tribulation

Lync-Haven Tourist Park – Cape Tribulation

http://www.lynchaven.com.au/

Stop 13 – 100kms

welcome to the other half of the Daintree forest! Tight roads, lush greens and really strong looking bridges...

view of our packed car...whilst waiting for the ferry

on the ferry, going THAT way

An unusual sort of park, our site was pretty small and very muddy…but it was raining pretty much the whole time…but you don’t get rainforest without rain…

entrance to the park

how did we fit you say??? It was very snug! But we were close to the amenities and camp kitchen, so it didnt matter that I couldnt get to my kitchen!

yep thats one big muddy puddle that we set up on!

But the park was huge including several large walks through the rainforest and around their animal pens…they had kangaroos and wallabies, heaps of snakes, birds and lizards and supposedly a very large croc which I saw photos of and saw a man heading off with a bucket of chickens with CROC written on the side so I must assume she really does exist! But we only stopped one night so we didn’t actually see her! They even had a resident wild cassowary to turns up at 8.30 every morning, we were told she is always near the "big puddle" the thing is...which one??? so many puddles. Oh and they had a fun outdoor cinema, but it was too rainy for a movie...

rainforest walk at the park

it rained the whole time we were here but at least its not cold!

Ok so we headed off to the Rainforest Canopy Walk…I had been told it was $25 each which I thought was pretty steep but I would cop it on the chin even though funds are seeping rather quickly into oblivion! We get there and it looks pretty cool, and the staff were so nice…but... it was $38 each …so devastated, I said thankyou very much and walked out…maybe Ill do the treetop walk in WA!

went to a lookout instead, to look at all the trees I could have been climbing around in!

these roosters were at the lookout...really strange
we overhead a tour guide saying that they were dumped a year or so ago and there were 15 chooks in total and the roosters are all that is left, they never leave the carpark area...

me tempting fate lurking around a mangrove creek in high croc area!

Now to prepare for our Cape Trip…several horror stories and “your not taking a trailer up the Cape are you??” and some "nah it’s a piece of pi#$" stories…

I GUESS WE WILL SEE…..

funny cassowary sign on the way to THE BLOOMFIELD TRACK...

Daintree Villiage

Daintree Villiage Tourist Park

Stop 12-  280kms

We headed to Daintree for our rainforest fill for the trip.. with dreams of me climbing the canopy like spiderman! Oh how I  couldn’t wait to tarzan my way through the treetops!

leaving Cairns..

pretty little sandy beach leaving Cairns...pretty, except for the triffids that attack you on the way through the dunes!

We stopped into Port Douglas for some lunch, drinks and a gelati

Shop at Port Douglas...

Big Cockatoo

Big Barra, right near our campsite!

Big Croc head on the banks of the Daintree River

Anyway..

Was a really nice simple park and close to the Daintree River, like right on the river…the river that they do croc tours on twice a day!

pretty cute, if you want power, they plug you into the house and give you a 20m extension cord and you climb up the bank and connect your power cord to it!

It rained...rained...and rained...

view down to the Daintree River (South Side)

So we went on the croc tour, both from our campsite and from the ferry crossing. We only saw a few little ones and a large head on our first tour and then saw a few bigger ones on our second trip. One of the crocs was being very protective of her….dead cow! Poor little bugger got too close to the waters edge and WHAM!...

baby croc

tree snake

slightly bigger croc

big croc, guarding her carcass...

Daintree River...

We went on a day trip to Mossman Gorge which was some nice falls and a cool suspension bridge walk…we got there to find that the suspension bridge walk is closed…they didn’t tell us that until they took our money!

whoops...wrong turn??

recon we could make it??

Mossman town’s main street is lined with “rain trees” from Africa..pretty cool…

I dont know what to say about this, in the main street of Mossman...

Brothel?? Gotta love the talent in far north QLD! ahahaha

Then pack up and off to Cape Tribulation (and rainforest skywalk!)

Visiting a bomb site, where the only Australian civilian casualty on the east coast, of WWII. She got schrapnel in her skull but was still kicking to unviel the plaque years later!

Goodbye Daintree Villiage...

Waiting for the ferry to cross the Daintree River.. there is one other way to cross...
THE CREB TRACK....not for us this time....and considering the rain we got probably not for many this time!

Out of order..

I have just added a post from last week, so it wont be at the top of the blog, but you must check it out..
Paronella Park...
http://sheriiandgeorge.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/paronella-park.html
xxxx

Cairns

Big 4 – Crystal Cascades Cairns

Stop 11 – 121kms

After driving all around Cairns and calling all the parks we could find (as it appears there are no free or low cost camps near cairns) to find they are all booked out…the Big 4 at crystal cascades, kindly let us stay in their ‘overflow’ area, We ended up staying for a few days and also bit the bullet and joined Big 4 which saved us a few dollars this time but hopefully by the time we make out way around, maybe a few more dollars. We managed to get no photos around the park, which Im not sure why? The park was a short drive from a long winding shallow river that you could swim in, we never made it to the falls at the end but was a lovely area anyway...They even had a free concert and free sausage sizzle…music was for 60+yrs old but was a nice night to sit outside and listen to a live band and eat free snags and salad J

We had thought that we would come back to Cairns after the Cape to work, but accommodation of any description is pretty expensive. I really like the area so maybe another time….

First to the big things!

yet another big banana...

Georges Hi-5 with the Big Captain Cook!

The Captain was going to be demolished but the local pub saved him by putting a big advert on his back!

The Big Cap- we were meant to go back and get a better photo but we forgot...

 We are holding parts of our trailer, electrical, clothes line and many many other things together with cable ties, so we were contemplating getting some bigger ones...hahahahha...wonder if we could cable tie on a wheel with those bad boys!

The Big Cable Ties

The Big Marlin

Big Jelly babies...what a find!

After spending the evening relaxing from big things searching... we decided to go up to Kuranda to the butterfly sanctuary; scooting up via the skyrail (much to Georges delight!) and then back via the scenic railway.

Was a really really (#nice?!!!) day.

view for the first 30mins..

"whats that...I can see through the clouds!"

One of the stops on the skyrail to look at the falls...

which we could hardly see cause of the mist.. still nice rainforest though

George was so relieved when we got the Kuranda and he could get off the skyrail that he celebrated Tarzan style...

Well why wouldnt you kiss a random miner??

I was a bit disappointed with the Butterfly Sanctuary (not really)…the butterflies LOVED Georges, St. George Jersey! And didn’t much like me..I was so jealous…but also a little relieved cause some of them were BIG…and heavy and sort of like a spider crawling all over you…but no when I think about it…im still just jealous… George didn’t enjoy having them attracted to him, there were so many that people were taking photos of him because they were all over him and noone else! Was hilarious!

one of the many "quick get the photo so it can get off me!" moments

this is a close as they came to me...hopping on my umbrella!

The Kuranda scenic railway was awesome, bloody long windy rickety bridges past waterfalls and VERY steep drops, pretty cool though!

"Bye Sherii, see you down the bottom..."

This is what happens when you duck to the loo before the train leaves...
 that lady on the left thought we were crazy pretending to chase the train and miss it...hahahha...was pretty funny!

Baron falls...from the otherside than the view from the Skyrail

the only bridge I could get a good photo of...pretty high and an amazing waterfall beside it...
so good in fact that they had a dinner party on the tracks when the bridge was just completed..would have been fantastic and also VERY scary!

We also dropped into the Cairns Night Markets which was fun…(for me J )

Sand sculptures on the beach outside the Night Markets...

Then to pack up and off to Daintree!