Cape Tribulation

Cape Tribulation is the place where rainforest meets the coral reef.
We were picked up in the morning and drove all day to get there.









On the way up to Cape Tribulation we stopped at the wildlife habitat, so we got an extra chance to say hello to everybody.

We also stopped to go on a river cruise, while the busdriver took a boring way to the end of the river.

On the river we saw wild crocodiles! (Don't worry Mom, I was in a secure boat!)

Can you see her? She's good at hiding.
This saltwater crocodile is approximately 4 years old, so she is a young one, and very small!








Stunning lookout

Interesting stick insect, only to be found around Cape Tribulation, according to our guide.

Be aware of cassowaries!

They are big black birds with colourful heads, I think I posted a picture from the Wildlife Habitat earlier.

They are very rare, only to be found in Australia and Papa New Guinea.










But suddenly one of these beautiful birds ran out on the road in front of our bus!
Click the foto and see the little black dot! It is a very real cassowary!

A car parked in the middle of the road, and we stopped as well to see why:

Cassowary!

And this time not just one!

There were two cassowaries, which isn't normal, as they only meet in the mating season. Once the egg has been laid, the female leaves and the male is left to raise the chicks.

But after a couple of minutes we realised there were two chicks as well! 4 cassowaries in one spot! We were so lucky, and I'm so happy we saw them!









Cape Tribulation was beautiful, but not as special as I had thought.











We were to stay at "The Beach House" 2 nights, before we went home again.











But the Beach House was not quite as we had imagined either!

Not a golden orb, but an interesting one!

We lived in small cottages in the middle of the rainforest.








The aircondition was broken and it was at least 30 degrees and the humidity around 100%.












Everywhere we walked there were spiders - Golden Orbs to be exact! Enormous spiders, 1 for every meter we walked on the pathway, and there were holes in our bugscreen!









 After the first night, Martin and I agreed that we didn't need the extra night, so we called the bus driver, and he took us home in the evening that day.

The toilets were open shelters, full of spiders and grasshoppers the size of a finger.













When Martin lifted the toilet seat to check for spiders, one the size of his hand crawled out from underneath it!

Luckily we had somthing awesome booked for the day!











JUNGLESURFING!!!!

Our names for the day:
Mini Me and Mother Nature!

We were strapped on to a rope, and then we slided down between the trees. It was so much fun.

The view was amazing and the crew nice.

We surfed through the jungle 30 meters above the ground.

I even did it with my feet up!

Last I bring you a video of me jungle surfing!
(Don't worry Mom, No one was hurt that day...)

Uncle Brians Bus tour

Back on land again we went on a bus tour with "uncle Brian" or so we thought. Unfortunately Uncle Brian couldn't come that day, so he sent Cousin Brad instead!












Cousin Brad was a funny guy, fond of water, nature and his bus, Gus, and then he was the craziest man I ever met!













He was also very fond of roundabouts, everytime we found a roundabout we went around it at least 3 times!










Cousin Brad took us out in nature to look at amazing sceneries and swim in waterfalls.

The falls were, not cold, refreshing!










Cousin Brad took us to a place where we could slide down the slippery rocks into the water.
It was so much fun!










 Here we are with our "Friend of the day" Sofie!
Even though the water was very... refreshing, we stayed there for a long time, just playing around.























In the forest we also found some wildlife. Mostly just these lovely spiders, that can become 17cm in diameter.

They are called "Golden Orbs" and they eat small birds....

Can you see what we are spelling?

Next up was a famous waterfall that was used in a commercial with a shampoo girl flipping her hair and throwing water everywhere, of course that was what we were going to do!
























We had a lot of fun trying to pose for the camera, but most of the pictures we ended up looking pretty stupid!

Another Golden Orb

 

A tree twisting to get to the sunlight

This only happens in Australia! We had to stop the bus, because of cows crossing the road....

Last water for the day was in a crater of a volcano!

It was beautiful, and the water was warm and nice, even though it was 60 meters deep, so we couldn't really touch the bottom...

very hard to see, but that brown spot right
there is a platypus!

In the end of the day we went to a small pit of water with muddy brown water.
You might wonder what exactly we would do there?







The answer is simple: platypus!
And yes, we saw it, just for a few seconds when he came up from the water, but that's better than most!











This is how they look like (not my picture).
A mix between a duck and a beaver, very shy and very rare.

Fish with very big eyes! 

The last thing I want to say, is for all my fellow Backpackers:

DO IT!!! You will not regret, unless you are boring and don't like water!