TD's Australian Adventure, finally.: Postcards from Pt. Douglas & Cape Tribulation

B E A U T I F U L days here in Port Douglas. Wednesday we had a free day, meaning no tours! A nice break to finally enjoy a day at the beach. The heat is extreme here so Mandy rented a beach umbrella and some lounge chairs for the day so we would at least be partially protected. The heat was too much for Trish who spent the remainder of the day basking in the air conditioning and taking the photos you see below. We took a break from the beach and meet up for lunch to claim one of our trivia prizes at the pizzeria/pub Rattle and Hum (great name and cool place). Just to prove to ourselves that we are legitimate trivia competitors we decided to head down the street for Wednesday night trivia at another pub. We came in third out of 15 teams but the prizes and announcer from last night weren't as good as Tuesday night trivia at Paddy's pub, so if any of you following this blog plan on traveling to Port Douglas in the future be sure to check out Paddy's, great people there.

Today, Thursday, Jen felt right at home, not because she often compares the south hill of Puyallup to a tropical paradise but because for the first time in two weeks she saw a lifted truck! And to top that it was actually our "sweet ride" for the tour to the Daintree rainforest and Cape Tribulation. We nicknamed it "The Beast." We were the last group to be picked up so we ended up in the back, luckily Trish and Jen took some more magic nausea pills and actually loved being in the back. Nothing like being airborne every 10 minutes, roads were a bit bumpy today. That being said we may have dozed off a couple times, apparently jolts make us sleepy. We had a great driver/tour guide, great sense of humor once again and actually learned a ton about all the ways animals and plants can kill you in Australia.

The road to Cape Tribulation has a similar feel to Kauai, in that there are areas of lush farmland mixed it with lush tropical tree filled hills. We passed pastures used mainly for growing sugar cane.

The Daintree rainforest is the oldest rainforest In the world, three times the age of the Amazon rainforest, crazy! We started off the tour with tea and a stroll through lifted boardwalks. The tour offered varying vantage points from forest floor to canopy with some Eco knowledge thrown in. Cape Tribulation Beach was our next stop. We ended up spotting a huge spider, Trish was too spooked to take a picture. From that point on we tried not to look closely at any of the plants, better not to know what is looking back at us. The beach was gorgeous. Queensland has some pretty amazing beaches for sure.

We had a traditional Australian barbecue with steaks and sausage, and then headed to Mossman Gorge. The Mossman Gorge, felt kind of similar to one of our family camping spots, La Wis Wis near Mt. Rainier. River flowing though boulders but with tropical trees instead of evergreen ones. From there it was back to Port Douglas.

To seal our final night we decided to take Gram up to the hill near four mile beach, for the amazing views. While we were there we met a lovely couple from England who are on our flight to Sydney tomorrow. We chatted about what we'd all been doing while in PD, and if they had done a Great Barrier tour, etc. Well it turns out the husband lost his crown on their outing so he was missing his front tooth, poor guy! He has to wait until he gets home to get it fixed because they explained Dental services in Australia are ridiculously expensive. So no more smiling in pictures for him. Jen and I suggested he just wear a rugby mouthguard and tell people he's just a rabid fan.

Port Douglas has been par for the course here in Australia and we've again been lucky enough to meet some really great people while here. I'm sure we'll be back someday.

Sydney here we come! T&J