Australia - Daintree, Cape Tribulation, Cairns and Mission Beach

Hey from Mission Beach, Australia.

We've had a couple of really busy, exciting days here. Since I last wrote to you we had jus planned to head up into the rainforest of the Daintree and Cap Tribulation. We booked a tour and promptly left the following morning at about 7am, not a pretty sight for the sleepy heads. We were concerned about getting there due to the recent amount of rain that had accoured as there was flooding all over cairns. (They have had half a metre of rain since January) Our first stop was a Mossman Gorge where there was water pumping through the greeny banks at really fast speeds, seemed like a great place to do white water rafting. Maybe a bit too dangerous. After this we were taken for a walk along a rainforest trail where we saw many spiders and other insects and some larger animals such as bats! I got a few great pictures which i'll hopefuli load up soon. We were told a few stories and learnt quite a few facts about the rainforest and mangrove area (mangrove is where the rainforest meets the saltwater). We were told about a tree in the area named by the aboriginals as the GimpyGimpy tree (also known as the stinging tree) If you were to brush past it you would have glass rods inplasnted into your pours of your skin for months resulting in pain every time you sweat or had a shower!! Not nice, we stayed clear from all plants for the rest of the tour. Although we did try tasting some nice green ants which were quite tasty.
We were then taken to a local wildlife sanctury where we were shown kangaroos (stuart managed to stroke one), a couple of crocodiles, some pythons and even a cassowary! It was good fun. We were later taken to our accomodation at PK's Village where we were put in a hostel room for 4.
In the evening we decided to go out on a night walk of the rainforest which was an organised tour to see if we could catch any more of the wilfife in the area. We saw many frogs, tree dragons and lizards. No snakes unfortunately. Although a few spiders named Golden Orbs. They seemed to be popping up alot all over. \
The following day we were taken to the river for a river cruise to find some crocodiles, we saw a couple up on the banks looking after their eggs which was reali good but we didnt get to close. We did manage to see a couple of snakes sitting on the trees as we went by.

We're now in Mission Beach staying at a hostel names Sonny's, we took the Oz Experience down here today who took us to visit innisfal along the way and another gorge and crocodile farm. It was a great day. I will keep you informed on how we get on down here on Mission Beach, I dont think we'll be staying for too long tho.

Speak to you all soon.

Alex.

xxx