Having taken Captain Matty’s Barefoot Tour the day before and been blown way any tour was going to be a little disappointing when it came to the personality of the guide. But still having said that this day was amazing just from the locations and what we saw.
Just like the day before we were late being picked up – as being someone who is always on time this is a big thing with me but I’m slowly starting to learn it’s quite normal for tours. We headed out of Cairns and up to Port Douglas to pick up another person and from there we just carried on heading more and more north. The whole time our guide Jim is talking over his head set, giving us stories and information about the area. At that time in the morning I barely listen but he sure knew his stuff that’s for sure. We stop quickly at the cross road café and then head to the crocodile boat tour, before boarding we are offered a cup of Daintree tea and biscuits. The boat ride lasts for about 30 minutes and the boat guide points out all sorts of wildlife and reals off facts. But the one thing we are there to see only appears once and it’s a pretty small one! We all feel pretty disappointed to have only seen one crocodile but it’s all down to luck and unfortunately the tide is in meaning they are hiding further back than we can see.
After the boat we head up to the Marrdja or Jindalba botanical boardwalk through the rainforest. Jim takes us around and talks a lot about the plants and animals found here – this includes the green ant whose bum tastes of lime if you lick it and yes my boyfriend tried it! While we were wandering around it started to pour down, I mean really pour down tropical style as annoying as the rain was it made the rainforest feel alive – like it was made for it to rain all the time. The walk was amazing I just wish we had have had longer to take some photos.
Our next stop was lunch at PK’s but before our food would be ready we had time to walk down to the beach and see where rainforest meets beach meets reef. Unfortunately it is only black reef here as the coral doesn’t grow so far inland but still it seems really cool. We are allocated benches in PK’s and the food is brought out to us – although handing out the food gets pretty complicated. I can’t complain though the food was delicious!
We start to head south again now taking a quick stop at the Daintree Ice Cream factory to get ice cream. I’m slightly disappointed by the fact they have tubs of four different ice creams and you cannot pick yourself. While eating up we head to the Alexandra Lookout over the top of cow bay – it’s nothing spectacular as the rain all day has made the sky full of big grey clouds!
My favourite part of the trip was this last stop the Mossman Gorge, first off we had a talk from an aboriginal about his relatives and the way they were thrown out of the rainforest and made to live in civilization. He spoke about all their old traditions and ways of life. How they would move with the weather and each person would have a role in the tribe for life. How as a young boy he had to train and learn all this to be part of the tribe. He talks about when the people were thrown out of the rainforest and how the government tried to take away their children. This often resulted in them running for the bush because this was what they knew – these days there are many stories and sightings that these then kids are still living in the rainforest. The talk was meant to be 15 minutes long but lasted 45 minutes! It was a talk I managed to listen to the whole way through and left me wanting to know more and be able to take a walk in the rainforest with an aboriginal guide. We were left with 15 minutes to see the Mossman Gorge – we bailed on the swimming and decided to walk up to the Rex Creek Bridge. A suspension bridge which reminded us of I’m A Celebrity… The 15 minutes was not enough at all but there was no budging on their time schedule!
Our last stop was Port Douglas for a tour around by bus but again just as we got there it started to pour down again so on our scenic drive around we didn’t get to see too much! From there it was back to Cairns arriving around 7 ish so again another full day tour for only $119 with lunch included. This tour also offered a stay over option where you did half the tour that am and then the other half when you were picked up another day.
After having Gilly be our tour guide anything was going hard to beat but the tour didn’t need an amazing tour guide it spoke volumes for itself. The rainforest was just like nothing I have ever seen before and to experience it in the rain was even better. I have never seen anything like rainforest and reef meeting. If I had have had more time I would love to have stayed longer, seen more and gone jungle surfing but unfortunately our time in Cairns ran out. I would highly recommend this tour if you want to see it all in one day or even a few as this company offers both. If you have had the chance to go to Mossman Gorge and walk the rainforest I would love to hear what you thought? Because if I ever go back its top of my list for that area.
It sounds like you had a good tour north of Cairns. The Daintree River and Mossman Gorge are definitely very impressive places to visit.