Australia: Day Twenty Three and Twenty Four - The Daintree Rainforest

We woke up in the hostel and packed up our backpacks while Dad went to pick up a rental car. When he got back we threw our backpacks in the trunk before starting our drive up to the Daintree Rainforest. After a few hours of driving and one stop for groceries we settled into our apartment to relax. The apartment had two floors and there was a huge pool right outside the door. We relaxed in the pool for a bit before dinner and played cards at night.

The next morning we got an early start and headed to an aboriginal guided walk of the Daintree Rainforest. On the tour we saw a bunch of the plants that the Aboriginals used to heal diseases and even a few that could cure types of cancer. We also saw some that could kill you with a touch of a thorn and and a fruit that's juice would make you go blind if it got in your eye. We saw a lean-to-shelter exactly like the ones they used to make and had some of the famous breakfast tea made from the herbs in the rainforest.

After the tour we thanked our guide before heading to the Daintree Rainforest National Park to try and spot a Cassowary. They look like emus with black feathers, blue and red neck and a horn like crown on its head.

                   

(This is the one we saw at the sanctuary.)

We drove to the park and had to go on the slowest most useless car ferry that took you across a tiny river when they easily could have built a bridge instead. Once we were across we drove through the park looking for Cassowary. We saw a group of wild boar in a ditch and saw a huge goose but no Cassowary yet. We stopped at a nice trail and hiked a two mile loop through Swamp and Rainforest but didn't see any there either.

Once we got back to the car we had some sandwiches for lunch and drove through a fruit farm to a gelato shop. All the gelato was grown on site. They had Coconut, Papaya, and one fruit that I had never heard of before. There was also Cacao which seeds are made into chocolate. We all got a small scoop of each and they were all really good. After gelato we walked around the farm that was made to live along side the jungle with diversity of fruits native to the land. On the way back to the car we even saw some Rainbow Lorikeets up in a palm tree.

We left the jungle farm and headed to a nice trail up the road. We walked the boardwalks through the lush green vegetation of the rainforest and saw some ground turkey foraging below us. Once we finished the hike we headed to a lookout at the far side of the park before heading back to our awesome apartment.

We didn't see any Cassowary but we got to hike through the amazing emerald green Daintree Rainforest.

Total vans: 1

Total slow ferries: 1

Total miles walked: 2.4 and 5.3 miles

Australia: Day Twenty Two - Flying Foxes in Cairns

We left our Melbourne hotel and drove back to the airport. Once we got there we returned our rental car before our flight to Cairns.

After a shorter flight we landed into a smaller airport, grabbed our bags and went out to catch a bus to our hostel. We waited for awhile in the hot sun until a bus drove into the parking lot. It was partially full and by the time everybody else at the bus stop had gotten on there were four seats left. So we split up. Mom, Sage, Zaddek, and I took the bus and Dad and Kaden caught a taxi awhile later. We showed up at the hostel only minutes apart and checked into our room. It was 3 bunk beds with a little air conditioner in the wall above one of the beds. Right as we entered the new room Dad got a call from the snorkelling tour company that we couldn't go on our trip to the Great Barrier Reef the next day. Australia was hit by a massive heat wave with the hottest temperatures of the last century. Our last chance to go was going to be two days from then when the heat wave might end. So we pushed our reservation at the hostel for the next couple of nights and made plans to head up to the Daintree Rainforest the next day.

We walked a few blocks along the boardwalk to a nice Irish restaurant the hostel had recommended and had great veggie burgers for dinner. On the way back we even saw some huge bats swarming the sky.

It was too dark to get a good photo of the ones that were in the trees above our heads but they look like this...

(photo by Jacque de Speville)

Once we got back we found out they were flying foxes also known as fruit bats. They are one of the largest bats in the world. Our hostel room felt like it was a hundred degrees so we turned on the AC just to find out it didn't work so we got a terrible night sleep.

Total planes: 1

Total shuttles: 1

Total miles walked: 2.4 miles

   

Australia: Day Twenty One - Kennett River

In the morning we left the hotel and drove two and a half hours to Kennett River which is famous for its wild koalas. As soon as we got out of the car we could see a koala way up in a tree with a group of people at the trunk of the tree. 

We got a few photos through the branches before 3 cockatoos flew past us. We headed over to see them and found a ton of cockatoos and parrots. One even flew right on to Zaddek's shoulder looking for food. Zaddek and Sage foraged the ground for extra seeds and Dad and I went up the road looking for koalas. We didn't find anymore up the road but we did get a good view of a bay.

We headed back down and spotted a second koala hanging from a more bare Eucalyptus. Kaden and I went to get a better angle and soon at least ten other people were there. Koalas hardly ever come down out of their tree but I guess the koala decided to find a more private place to sleep because it descended the tree and walked right through the people grunting a warning for us to back off. He went right up the ravine and under the iron gate and would have run into my mom if she hadn't have jumped out of the way. I went a few feet to the right and slid underneath the gate with the camera and ran across the road keeping a good 10 feet distance to the right and staying 10 feet ahead to get his face in the photo. After he had crossed the road I handed the camera to Zaddek who got some great photos of him climbing up the tree. 

Soon the koala was out of sight through the branches so we got some lunch at the small cafe in the parking lot. 

 As we ate Zaddek was getting all the parrots to fly on to his shoulders and at one point he had 4 on each arm. Once we finished eating we had to go so Zaddek handed off all the parrots to the other kids before we left.

 (The kookaburra was sitting at a table outside the cafe.)

Once we were back on the road we drove by a park where there were kangaroos hanging out. We got close enough for pictures then kept going back to Melbourne. We got to the airport hotel and relaxed ready for our flight to Cairns the next day.

Total vans: 1

Total miles walked: 1.2 miles

Australia: Day Twenty - The Twelve Apostles

In the morning we left our hotel and drove four and a half hours back up through Melbourne and down the other side of the bay to the Twelve Apostles. We dropped off our bags at our hotel in a nearby town and went back in the van to visit the cliffs along the coast.

We got in and out of the van at four separate stops across the coast before getting dinner. We checked out a few restaurants but everything on the menu was meat and seafood so we found a small Italian restaurant and had some pasta for dinner before heading to the Twelve Apostles for sunset.

We walked out and saw the Twelve Apostles sticking out of the water like spikes. I thought it was pretty cool but Sage obviously wasn't impressed because when mom lifted her above the railing to see them she said "Oh great more rocks".

After we took a few photos the dark clouds settled in and the whole place grew dark. We waited half an hour to see if the sunset would shine through a gap in the clouds but it just grew darker and darker. We headed back to the van in the rain and went back to the hotel for the night.

Total Vans: 1

Total miles walked: 3.1 miles