Cape Tribulation, Australia, Australia

Today we left Calypso Backpackers in Cairns to head up to Cape Tribulation. We picked up our rental car from Hertz and were on the road by 10am. Unfortunately, we had to hit the road in our very ugly lime green Hyundai Getz. It’s certainly not the nicest of vehicles, but it’ll get us around, and it has AC! We stopped at a place called Mossman Gorge which was recommended to us by the Calypso workers.

I’m so glad it was recommended to us because we probably would have just driven by it had we not been looking out for the sign. It was just a few miles off the Captain Cook Highway, but when I walked around in it I felt like I was in another world! There was lush rainforest, with a good size river running through the middle of it. The parks department has built a series of walking platforms through the rainforest with signs telling you exactly what kinds of flora and fauna can be found in these jungles. It was a stunning place to escape to and just walk around for about an hour.

After enjoying the scenery we hit the road again heading for Cape Tribulation. In order to get north of the Daintree River, you need to take a ferry. It had been raining for most of the morning north of the river, so we found out when we got the car onto the ferry that we probably wouldn’t be able to drive very far on the roads. The ferry worker said we could give it a shot and if it was too bad, just turn back and we wouldn’t have to pay for the ferry ride over or back. That’s exactly what we did. The roads had a river running across it and I’m certain that our little Hyundai would have been washed aside like a palm leaf.

We went back to the south side of the river and had to drive 30 minutes back to Mossman before getting a cell phone signal so we could call the hostel in Cape Tribulation. It was recommended that we wait for about an hour and try it again, so we followed Ian’s instructions and came back an hour later. We were told by the ferry workers that the roads wouldn’t be much better so we called the Crocodylus Village Hostel from the ferry port’s phone, and the owner was nice enough to pick us up on her way back up from Port Douglas.

Terry picked us up from the ferry port in the pouring rain, and we made our way across the river and up the road to Crocodylus. It’s a good thing we never took our car because we definitely would have been washed away. It was a stunning drive up through the rain forest to get to the hostel though, so I’m glad we finally got there. I checked in only to find out that I was lucky enough to get a four person dorm to myself! This hostel is more like a camp that has been thrown up in the middle of the rain forest. Each dorm is a building that consisted of four rooms (none of which locked) and each room had four bunks in it. The interior walls were plywood, the exterior walls were a thick netting, and the roof was a thick plastic tarp. This was as close to camping in the rain forest as I was going to get, without actually being in a tent. I relaxed in my room for a bit and then met Lisa for dinner at about 7pm. I had a local special called Risolles which is pretty much just seasoned hamburger patties served with mashed potatoes and vegetables. It was AWESOME! Of course I’m a meat and potatoes kind of guy, so it fit the bill perfectly. We had a few glasses of wine, and by 9pm we were ready to pass out. We’re sad, I know. So we made our way to our separate dorms and called it a night. Hopefully there won’t be as much rain tomorrow, so we can actually see Cape Tribulation!