Day 27: Cape Tribulation and Daintree National Park

These early mornings are becoming quite the habit over here! Yes, we start off with breakfast at 06:30 again this morning, as we’ll be picked up by Billy Tea Bush Safaris around 7 at our hotel. They’ll be trucking us and a few other people up north today, on a full day of exploring the country north of Cairns.

The first thing on the menu today was a two hour drive to Daintree National Park, where a cruise on the Daintree river was going to be the second thing. Unfortunately, the weather today is overcast but still warm which in our experience means that the animals are a bit more shy, and tend to not show themselves. In this case, it was not different. The tour guarantees sights of saltwater or Estuarine Crocodiles, but during the hour we have not seen a single croc. The birds also were not abundantly present, which left the guide stupified and us a little disappointed. But hey, that is wildlife for you. Luck is everything, and today our luck apparently had run out. The tour itself was great as the river is beautiful, but some sightings of animals would’ve topped it off.

Shortly before lunch, we arrived at a café with their own wildlife sanctuary. They take the orphaned Kangaroo babies (Joeys) off of roadkill and hand raise them to not let the young kangaroo perish. These hand reared animals have no skills which are naturally taught by their mothers, and so they can not be returned to the wild. They live their lives in a big enclosure next to the café, and can be hand fed by the passers by. And we did pass by today! The Kangaroos are lovely, and feeding them sweet potato is really cool. 🙂 After a steak sandwich lunch, we continued our journey north to Cape Tribulation and the Bloomfield Track.

Cape Tribulation is very picturesque and scenic, especially with the clouds of today, but the tour was on a schedule and we needed to get moving again. This time, more food as we were given a tasting of ‘vine ripened’ exotic fruits. These are unfamiliar looking, smelling and tasting fruits grown locally. We has Sweet Custard Apple, as well as Sour Custard Apple (Soursop), A wild variety of Papaya and a few fruits of which I don’t remember the names. They were all quite nice, but very sticky and with the weirdest textures ranging from very stringy to very soft like a custard. Cool!

On route back, the guide insisted on telling us more background on the area, which was very informational but also tiresome as we had been lugged around in a truck all day. Even though, the trip was worth it! Unfortunately, the animals never did show themselves which is a shame as we were in Cassowary country, and we are very eager to spot them. Tomorrow, we’ll pick up a car here in Cairns, and will be off down South.