Si's Year Out! (Plus Europe! Plus Morocco!): Jungle Surfing.....

I was being picked up at Port Douglas for my 'Jungle Adventure into Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Forest', so I drove there in the afternoon and cooked up a BBQ for dinner. On the other BBQ (they are usually in pairs) were three chaps from Hereford who had just arrived in Australia, so we had a few beers while I told them what I'd done so far. I was gonna sleep in that area but the guys had been there for two days and someone from the hotel across the road had called the police to move us on. The police came, but instead of telling us to leave, they said we should just go round the corner, out of sight of the hotel, result!

I was at my pickup point at 8:30, ready to be collected at 8:45. By 9:00 I was getting a bit restless, but the pickups are always late.... At 9:15 I was still waiting so I found the number for the company, but thought I'd give them another 10 minutes. Still nothing at 9:25 so I called up. The woman said I was on the list to be picked up but she couldn't get hold of the driver cos he was out of range and she'd call back. 10 minutes later she called.....I was the only one to get picked up in that area and the driver had completely forgotten me and was about half hour down the road. He had to come back to get me, bringing the 20 people that had already been on the bus for 2 hours.....great way to make yourself popular with the group!

First stop was the Daintree river for 'croc spotting'! We climbed into this rickety old wooden boat, which I swear had holes in, to search for animals that could easily eat us and apparently grow up to 10 meters in length..... We saw 2 crocs, both quite small and on the shore (thankfully!), and a load of tree snakes. The snakes were everywhere.....I'd be spending the night about 300 meters from here..... After that we took a walk through the jungle while the guide told us a bit about the area. This area of rainforest is 135 million years old (apparently the amazon rainforest is 'only' about 10 million years old)! Also, this is the only part of the world where two world heritage listed sites meet, Daintree National Park and the Great Barrier Reef.

After all that it was over to my accommodation. The dorm was really nice, with real beds instead of bunk beds, and a pool outside! At 4pm I was picked up for jungle surfing! Jungle surfing basically involves climbing up a tall tree and flying, over ziplines suspended about 20 meters up in the canopy, from tree to tree while being taught about the jungle! Words cannot describe how much fun it was, especially the last section, which I did hanging upside-down! That evening I had dinner with some of the others in my group and played in a pool comp, lost in the semi-finals damnit!

The next day I had some time in the morning to look around so I went to the beach. There were two points of access to the beach, about 2km apart, so I decided to walk from one to the other. Just before the second access point there was a stream running into the sea. It wasn't too deep I reckoned so I walked in. It was a bit deeper than I expected and actually came up to my waist but I could make it across easily.....about half way over I noticed the sign below on the opposite bank of the river:

Why the fuck don't they have a sign on both sides, I thought as a ran across the last half!!! I made it, phew!

We were picked up that afternoon for the second half of the tour. We went to a lookout which, among other things, showed the island that Steve Irwin was diving off when he was killed by the stingray. After that we went to Mossman Gorge, which has a really big river running through it. You could walk upstream, jump in and be washed down the rapids before you even knew you'd hit the water! That was the end of the tour, which was one of the best I've done, so it was back to Port Douglas.

Cape Tribulation is the most Northern point on the East coast that I will visit. I've essentially finished my journey up the coast! But its not over yet! I left out a few things on the way up so that it wouldn't be too boring on the way back down (I am going back down to meet friends in Brisbane then Manly and need to sell the car in NSW). So, next thing on the list is SCUBA diving on the Great Barrier Reef. I'm just waiting for a non-windy day, probably Monday, and its hello fishies!

I just realised that its 6 months since I left England, its gone so fast!

Looking out from the road between Cairns and Port Douglas

On the Daintree River, no crocs yet....

Theres one!

There were also lots of snakes

The area is also home to the endangered Cassowary, this sign was put up after some were run over....

Mangroves with big roots

All suited up for some jungle surfing!

The two people in front of me

Just before my first jump. Everyones hat had a name on it, which was your name for the duration of the tour. I was 'Darth Vader', all the other names seemed to be a bit more cuddly than that....maybe they're trying to tell me something....

This picture was taken by the girl who went before me, apparently she was still shaking from her jump (hence the blurring)!

At one point I had to wait in the middle, suspended abouot 20 meters up, while they sorted out a problem with my rope (!). I distracted myself from the fact that I might die by taking this picture....