Cape Tribulation

On Tuesday we left Pt Douglas and had lunch in Daintree village before heading for Cape Tribulation. During our three days in Pt Douglas we had quite a lot of rain - Monday night 48mils in 2-3hours - and it did not stop. Cape Tribulation has the most amazing rainforests, the vegetation is different from the other Wet Tropics we have seen, and everything was dripping.ir..during April over 1000mils have fallen at the Cape.
On the drive in we saw a cassowary and his chick foraging beside the road, all the cars just stopped and we were all looking until one car speeded up so the cassowary just walked into the bush, sad for us.
We stayed overnight in the Nat Park but the dripping really was hard - not cold at all just everything was wet.
Had a fantastic ride along the beach just south of the Cape - love riding those beaches. The bike is really showing the bad treatment it gets, though I do spray it regularly, but it gets showered by the rain, often!
We went on a couple of the boardwalks into the rainforest, just so interesting, did not see many birds or butterflies. Perhaps it was too wet/
Drove  back to Cairns and stayed at Lake Placid and once again tried to paddle Noodle but the access meant we would have to carry her over 100 metres and I don't do that. So we decided that we needed to make a dolly to trolley her around. So off to Bunnings - we bought a trolley on special and just took the wheels, axle and washers - much to the amazment of the checkout chick, left the rest with her. We headed to Mareeba, where Christian was staying when I was away to see his friend, Bill, to borrow his drill. We now have a dolly so tomorrow we will head west to Chillagoe first then more west.
Don't know how internet access will be for the next couple of months but will try to blog when I can.

Climbing Granite Boulders

Sitting at the back of the Landcruiser typing this, we are in Pt Douglas and it is hot and humid... must be around 25c now even though it is around 8pm. We arrived here on Saturday after spending a few days climbing all over lots of  boulders at Granite Gorge and Davis Creek falls. Granite Gorge has huge boulders that are the gorge, they are piled everywhere and rock wallabies live there, jumping all over the boulders. There is a small creek at the base but mostly it is boulders piled all over.
Of course some have wonderful names like Arch - a boulder lying across two forming an arch - Dinosaur, a broken off slab sitting sideways resembling a Steggosaurus (I think I have the spelling right) Footsteps, the hollows resemble a series of footprints???
We also went to Davis Creek, another great Nat. Park with a tumbling waterfall.
Swam in both places in cool water pools, great when in but difficult to get in.
Headed out of Mareeba on Saturday after taking many hours to pack up the camp. Could not remember where everything went before but eventually left. Stopped at the wetlands on the way north - lots and lots of waterlillies but not allowed to paddle Noodle there. On Sunday, as planned we went out to the Low Isles on a large sailing cat. Another great day with spectacular snorkling.
The Low Isles are a Coral Cay with a beautiful old lighthouse on the small island. The other is mangroves but the little isle is a coral cay with some vegetation. The biologist on the boat told us that the sand is made up of 30% fish poo and the rest fragmented coral, shells and seaweeds with a some pumice, probably from the pacific islands.  Did you know that beaches are 30% fish poo!!!!
It was a calm though cloudy day so we did not take any photos but had a great day. Of course the 'sailing' was motorsailing.
Today we went on an old wooden ferry, Lady Douglas, for a trip along the mangrove lined inlet looking for salties. We did see 4, 2 small and 2 larger. The largest was swimming to a crab trap which it proceeded to raid! Apparently they have learnt that there is food in crab traps so they raid the traps, occasionally a croc is seen with a trap caught over its head! Tomorrow we will head for Cape Tribulation before heading back this way and then out west.  Cape York will have to wait for another visit as it is still the wet.

Stage 2, Cairns to Darwin

Time to start again - Christian has been in a very quite camp outside Mareeba on the banks of the Baron River - there is not a lot of water in the river - Mareeba in on the other side of the mountains and is open grass and eucalypt country - Savannah - it is amazing how quickly it changes from Tropical Wet to Savannah. 30k to the south is Atherton which is in the mountains has rainforest around and has a higher rainfall that Mareeba.  Sunday, Christian's birthday we spent a lovely day climbing up a waterfall at Emerald Creek just to the east of Mareeba. We had a great time climbing all over the rocks at the side and were able to swim in a couple of the pools.
I climbed out along the top of the falls for a great view down the falls.Sounds dangerous but it was not, just physical.
We have been trying to get Noodle wet but because of the dense growth everywhere it is difficult to access rivers. Yesterday we went to Tinaroo dam, a huge water irrigation area for the district, but the wind was (OF COURSE) blowing 20+knots and paddling would not be so pleasant. One day we will get a quite day for a paddle. Why does the wind blow all the year around up here. I wrongly thought the trades were more during the dry..........
Up here they seem to grow lots and lots of food. Lots of vegiis and fruits. Great red papaya at present which we feast on everyday.
As we did not paddle we went into the Crystal Caves in Atherton. Great geodes and fossils on displayed inside a (foam and paint) cave. One is required to wear a miners helmet + light but there are beautiful pieces. Some of the geodes have the most amazing crystals inside.There is lots of advertising for this place, which is really a shop, all over the tablelands so it is hard not to go there.
We will leave Mareeba Friday and head down to Pt Douglas.
According to seabreeze.com.au Sunday is going to be light winds, under 10knots (the only day for the past 10 days) so we will go out to the Low Islands (by commercial cat) for the day.