This morning Alex and I took advantage of our rental car and drove about an hour north to the Daintree Rainforest and Port Douglas area.
We started with a hike through the jungle at the Aboriginal-owned Mossman Gorge. While the trail was pretty flat and the sky was cloudy, it was so humid we were both drenched after the hour-and-a-half circuit.
Very scenic coastal drive from Cairns up to Mossman Gorge.
Another pull-off along the coast.
One more - this time from the top of one of the many hills in the area.
Paused during our hike to snap a photo of Alex by one of the (many) massive trees scattered throughout the rainforest.
Here's a different tree - hopefully you get a sense of how big they are!
We saw a handful of birds, lizards and...turkeys on our walk through the rainforest. These Australian Brush Turkeys are native to the rainforest and we saw a few of them kicking around piles of leaves (preparing a nest for their eggs).
Feeling much more exhausted than we should have after a relatively easy hike, we stopped for lunch at the very first place we saw: Goodies Café in downtown Mossman. What a pleasant surprise! The menu contained so many healthy, delicious sounding options that Alex had to finally force me to make up my mind and order (fresh watermelon juice and Moroccan chicken wrap). The veggie-packed sandwiches were just what we needed to refuel for the day before continuing on toward Cape Tribulation.
Getting to the Daintree Rainforest is only allowed via ferry (at least from the south) so we were happy we didn't have to wait in line too long. Given that you must turn your engines off and stay in the car - no AC! - we were happy the ferry ride took all of five minutes.
Our hostel gave us a great map detailing all of the best spots in the area so we headed first to a nearby lookout point, Mt. Alexandra.
Where the rainforest meets the reef.
After taking in the views at Mt. Alexandra we continued north to Myall Beach. We opted to skip the rainforest hike offered there and just headed straight to check out the beach.
Beautiful (and empty) Myall Beach in Daintree.
Unfortunately there were no stinger nets so we couldn't go swimming...but the views were still worth it!
We had noticed the Daintree Ice Cream Factory as we drove past going north so we decided to stop on the way to Cow Bay Beach (we were healthy for lunch, right?!). The place is very cool - they grow all kinds of tropical fruits to flavor the ice cream and identify all of the trees on the property. Since the only item on the menu is a sampling of the daily four flavors, Alex and I were glad none of the flavors contained nuts! Our favorite was actually a local ingredient called the Wattleseed, which tastes similar to espresso.
We took our treat and drove the short drive to Cow Bay Beach, which we had all to ourselves.
Hard to decide which I liked more: Myall or Cow Bay.
The weather had cooled a bit so we rested comfortably on the beach until it was time to head back toward the ferry.
We made it back to our hostel just before dinner time and walked next door to the Green Ant Cantina for some Mexican food. While the meal was delicious I was surprised at the cost; our hostel had advertised $5 drinks and $5 meals, but a beer cost $9. Oh well - can't complain as our drinks and meals were both great!
Tomorrow we drive to Townsville for the night and continue our Australian road trip!