Cairns

Our last day of the holiday was spent exploring Cairns - quite a small city and lots more international tourist compared to Port Douglas.  The waterfront area is a nice walk, with lots of bars and restaurants taking advantage of the views, along with the high rise international chain hotels.

The esplanade has its own swimming pool which is a popular cooling off spot for the locals and tourists.

The trees near our hotel are full of fruit bats, squeaking away during the day then taking to the skies at dusk.

The afternoon hours were spent by the hotel pool making the most of the sunshine and the cocktails from the pool bar :o)

Atherton Tablelands

To get from Port Douglas to Cairns we hired a car and headed inland to explore some of the Atherton Tablelands region.  The first leg of our journey, the landscape was typically Australian with red soil and gum trees a plenty.  There were also loads of termite mounds everywhere.

After a brief stop in Mareeba, we headed to Lake Tinaroo - a popular holiday destination with lots of camp sites around the large lake.

We then saw our first fig tree of the day - the Curtain Fig, and amazing tree.

The board shows how the tree is formed.

Next stop was Yungaburra to spot duck billed platypus - we did see a baby, but he was too quick for me to get a photo, so I took a photo of the info board instead...

For lunch we stopped at Malanda - one of the famous waterfalls in the region.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit any of the others this time so will do those on a future visit.

The crater lakes were our next stop, first off Lake Eacham.

And then Lake Barrine complete with its daily boat trips.

Our next stop for the day was the Cathedral fig tree, another imposing tree formed in the same way as the Curtain fig.

The road to Cairns, and our final stop for the day, gave us this view over the Tablelands.

Wildlife Habitat - Koalas, Kangaroos & Crocs

The kangaroo enclosure and feeding time - Royston talks to the animals...  The small kangaroos were very keen to be fed and stroked.

Whilst the larger ones watched on - quite glad about that!

This mum had a joey in her pouch wriggling around.

The koalas were slightly less enthusiastic, i.e. asleep...

Glen the koala waking up ready for his photo moments (you could pay to hold him for a photo).

The crocodiles were also very sleepy, but not as cute...

Wildlife Habitat - Birds, Birds & More Birds

This morning we visited Wildlife Habitat to see some native birds and animals.  Firstly the birds, and the weirdest - the cassowary.  A rare Queensland native bird and strange looking bird.

Feeding time for the pelicans and emus, keenly following the food trolley!

The native kookaburra (not sat in the old gum tree...).

Nice quiff...

Sleep time for the owl.

George the Groper

Every day at 5pm is feeding time for George, a 250kg groper fish.  In goes the bait - a whole tuna head.

And George didn't disappoint - you can just see the size of him in the water.

George was then joined by a friend - not much left of the head at the end.

Grub's Trike Tour to Silky Oaks Lodge

Today we headed off with Grub on the back of his trike for a trip to Silky Oaks Lodge, a luxury spa hotel in the middle of the bush.

We headed north via Mossman, past the sugar cane fields - harvesting in action.

The view across the cane field to Mossman Gorge (a trip for next time we visit).

The locals swimming hole - I assume crocodile free!

At Silky Oaks Lodge we settled down for a glass of wine and a stunning platter of tropical fruit.

Whilst looking out at the view down over the Mossman River.  A beautiful spot, sadly out of our price range.  Then headed back on the trike - 100km an hour down the main highway, we felt like we had a face lift after that!

Daintree Rainforest Walk

Our guide took us through the rainforest and explained the various flora and fauna that we saw - a very diverse habitat. A lot of the trees have large buttress roots for stability.

Flowers growing out of the tree trunk.

The very strange Boyd's dragon.

Inside a strangling fig - the tree that was strangled has since died.

Bloomfield Falls & Stingray Bay

North of Cape Tribulation we headed along a rugged 4WD track through streams to the aboriginal area of Wujal Wujal, a walk across boulders led us to the beautiful Bloomfield Falls.







Needless to say we took notice of this sign - it seems if you go in the water and don't get stung to death by jellyfish you'd get eaten by a croc!

Cape Tribulation

Cape Tribulation is the famous area of the Daintree Rainforest being where the Reef meets the Rainforest. It was named by Captain Cook after his ship Endeavour hit the reef. The beach (like all the others in this area) was beautiful white sand - the view from the lookout.




As well as palm trees there are lots of mangrove plants on the beach.






Another shot of the beach.

Stop Offs On The Way

After Daintree River we headed to Cape Tribulation with several stops along the way. First stop Mt Alexandra look out.






This video shows the view and the mouth of the Daintree River.




Next stop, Thornton Beach - stunning white sand and empty.

The beach was lined with palm trees laden with coconuts.

A fun road sign depicting the native (and very rare) local bird - the cassowary. See later post of the Wildlife Habitat to see a photo of this weird looking bird.

Daintree River Cruise

Today we went on Tony's Tropical Tours heading north to Daintree and Cape Tribulation. First stop of the day was a river cruise on the Daintree River to spot crocodiles.







Mangroves line the water's edge - you can see the high tide water level on these trees.






We saw quite a few birds along the way, including this kingfisher.






And then a tree snake poking his head out of the trunk.







And then finally the highlight of the river trip, we finally spotted a female crocodile - lucky as they tend to only come out of the water later in the day at the height of the sunshine. We stayed a suitable distance away!