Adventures in the Daintree

 After four days in the internet wilderness we are now at Airlie Beach and have five bars of service on the Telstra dongle and can actually access web pages and upload photos... yay!
 Apologies for the delayed blog but it was out of our control!
This is going to be a long story...
We spent a day touring the Daintree up as far as Cape Tribulation and then the next day at Mossman Gorge before we headed south again. Four relaxing nights at our camp site at the lovely Wonga Beach with the peacocks and the curlews.

So in the end we didn't get as far north as Cooktown. Before crossing the Daintree River on a vehicular ferry, we explored the tiny village of Daintree and had  coffee and yummy caramel slice. (We had to get some energy for the big day ahead.)

On the boardwalk in the Daintree Discovery Centre

On Sunday morning we were up bright and early to head north to the Daintree... World Heritage rainforest. The Daintree Discovery Centre is an interesting place that lets you access every level of the Daintree Rainforest from the forest floor

Looking up to where we walked through the rain forest

to the uppermost reaches of the canopy via a twenty three mete high tower. My fear of heights kicked in and I only made it half way to the top!

I made it over half way before my legs went to jelly.

The top of the rain forest canopy

Ian soldiered on and took a photo of the canopy for me. We spent a couple of hours at the centre looking at the displays and particularly enjoying the Gondwana Ghosts

There were displays of snakes and dragons and many beautiful photo opportunities.

A forest dragon

A python

The 23 metre canopy tower

I am beginning to get teased about my love for taking photos of trees.

One of my many tree photos. I might do a calendar!

Here is a particularly nice one! We came across many hidden gems of creeks, hidden beaches,

Stepping from the rain forest onto the beach at Cape Tribulation

lookouts. mountains topped with clouds. On the way home we even spotted a cassowary in the wild.

A beautiful beach but swimming not advised because of the stingers in summer an the crocodiles all  year!

Thornton's Peak

We really gained a first hand understanding of why the Daintree is a World Heritage area. We travelled home to Wonga Beach camp via the vehicular ferry, and dinner at the campsite. On the trip home we stopped at the Alexandra Range lookout for some spectacular photo opportunities.

Alexandra Lookout in the Daintree Rain Forest looking south east over the Coral Sea