Today was Daintree National Park, Cape Tribulation and Mosman. We drove north from Port Douglas after a long sleep and scrambled eggs, coffee, yogurt, melon and weet bix for breakfast. It rained on and off all night
and continued during the day. We had bouts of sunshine, some clear skies, but mostly cloudy but warm. The temperature is in the high twenties. We turned on the navigator but missed the turn off to Discovery Daintree and continued along the straight and narrow till we passed a place which was offering crocodile tours on the Daintree River. It was the experience of a lifetime. The crocodiles are in their natural environment. The boat captain was an expert on crocodiles and the flora and fauna of the area. He told us so much about the crocodiles and the myths and legends and misconceptions. He took us along the river and explained how the mangroves have adapted to the salt water. He searched the banks with his keen eye and showed us a large male called Scarface, sunning on the mud, a smaller one hiding behind some bushes and some newly hatched crocodiles. He answered all our questions and at the end, they let us hold a two year old which was being cared for by the station.
We drove through the sugar cane on the way up and I was surprised not to see any cane toads. At the crocodile stop and then also where we stopped for lunch, there were bright blue butterflies, which reminded me of the butterfly domes I used to sell in Sydney with the Blue Morpho, which was the most expensive butterfly.
We drove to Daintree Village and returned to have lunch at a tiny cabin which served Devonshire Tea and excellent food in the middle of the rainforest. We both had the barramundi lunchtime special.
Then we drove south again to the missed turnoff towards Cape Tribulation, back north, across the river with a ferry and up north to a crocodile beach, Myall Beach, where the coconut palms were growing on the beach, the rainforest meets the barrier reef, and the corals were swept up on the sand.
