Where the Rainforest Meets the Reef

We were up bright and early, which is starting to be a trend for us, to catch our shuttle to Cape Tribulation. We unfortunately were the last three people to get picked up by the shuttle so we weren't sitting together and Lindsay and I were in the last two rows of the bus. We both get motion sickness and the road up to Cape Trib is extremely windy and through the mountains, but we took bronine which has saved the day numerous times so far on the trip. We had booked this package on the first day we arrived in Australia so we knew that the trip up included a crocodile cruise, but other than that I thought it would just be transportation, but the shuttle was actually more of a tour. The bus driver was extremely informative about the area and we even pulled over for a rain forest walk. On the way back the tour included a brief stop at Mossman Gorge to go for a swim and a stop in the town of Port Douglas.
The crocodile cruise was interesting for the first 10 minutes and the first couple of crocs we saw were exciting, but being from Florida and having seeing countless numbers of alligators it wasn't really that thrilling. After the cruise we were back on the bus and headed up to the rainforest, weed stopped for about a twenty minute walk where we were looking for the endangered Cassowary (a giant flightless bird), we didn't find one but the walk was still beautiful. We arrived at our hostel around 1 pm, it was also called the Beach House but was much nicer than where we stayed in Cairns. We stayed in little cabins, our room was a six person share, it was pretty rustic but still nice. We headed over to the restaurant for some lunch and were a little disappointed because everything was really expensive and we didn't bring any of our own food and there wasn't really anywhere nearby to buy groceries. We would only be there for a couple of days so we figured it wouldn't be too damaging to splurge on food a bit. After lunch we walked down to the beach which was literally a 30 sec walk. The beach was absolutely beautiful, it is one of the only places in the world where World Heritage rainforest meets the Great Barrier reef. The beach was almost completely deserted, and to make it even better its surrounded by cloudy rainforest mountains. I was happy to sit in the sun and read my book for hours. We didn't go in the water because there were warning signs about crocs. They said we could go in the water as long as you can see in the water so you know if something is coming for you, but I decided I wouldn't take my chances. Lindsay and I went on a very long walk down the beach and on the way we found (or rather she found us) the most lovely dog. She was an extremely friend and huge Great Dane that we named pony. Lauren was taking a nap when Linds and I left for the walk, she woke up looking for us and saw two people that looked like us down the beach but these people had a giant dog so she figured it couldn't be us, but it was and Lauren was happy to meet our new friend Pony.
After meeting up with Lauren we decided we might as well walk down the beach in the other direction towards a small convenient store at another hostel that we had seen when we dropped people off the bus earlier that day. It turned out to be a pretty long walk, probably about 5 miles to get there. Five miles isn't really that far but we also had to walk back and it was starting to get late in the afternoon. The little grocery store was also WAY over price, but I suppose supply is extremely low in the rainforest so they can get away which charging exorbant prices. We just bought food for breakfast basically and then headed on back to our hostel. We decided to walk down the road instead of along the beach because it would be more direct and quicker, the walk was still pretty though because it is in the rainforest. After about 20 mins of walking back my feet were starting to kill me because I was wearing flip flops, but then we saw a sign that said "Beach House Keep Out", we figured this must be the Beach House we are staying in, how many beach houses can there be in a 5 km stretch, we also figured it said keep out because it was prob the service entrance. We walked down this really long road and as we got down it we started to notice it looked more like a junk yard than our accommodation, then we saw a really ramshackled looking house, then we saw and heard the three very angry looking guard dogs running out of the house at us not on chains. Our first instinct was to run, so that made there instinct be to chase us. We turned to face them and slowly walked backwards and they backed off, but it was terrifying and we thought we would be attacked by dogs on this really scary property that looked like it could be in a horror movie. After we got back on the road it was only another ten minutes back to the "real" Beach House. By the time we got back it was already evening so we showered and ate at the restaurant which turned out to be one of the best places we have eaten the entire time we have been in Australia. Lauren finally got to have Kangaroo and it was delicious, it pretty much tastes like steak. We again were in bed an asleep by 9 pm.
The next day we went on an exotic fruit tasting at a farm a couple of minutes from our hostel. This was so much fun and we of course loved it because we all love food. We tried ten different fruits and they were all delicious. One of my favorites was the custard apple, and I also really liked the sapotes. Unfortunately a lot of the fruits we tried aren't sold commercially, because either they are really ugly, they don't ship well, or they are ugly AND don't ship well. After we got back to our hostel we spent the rest of the afternoon sharing a beer and playing boggle, it was a great way to end a very relaxing day, and again we were in bed nice and early, but this night we had a surprise visitor in the middle of night. Around 1 am we are all awaken by Lindsay standing on the opposite side of the room to her bed freaking out about the GIANT rat that is by her bed. We turn on the light and sure enough sitting on her purse is a rodent, but it's just a mouse although I give it to her it was large. At first we are all staring at it quite confused because we can't figure out why the mouse is eating her purse, but then we realize he isn't eating her purse he is eating the banana she accidentally left in her purse. He chewed a pretty decent size hole in her bag which will probably serve as a nice reminder to her the next time she is in the wilderness to not bring in any food. Lauren was the lucky one who got to share her twin size bed with Lindsay because she had the top bunk which was furthest from the mouse.
The next day we left Cape Tribulation, I had a great relaxing time but I think Lindsay especially was eager to get back to civilization where there aren't mice etc. Our shuttle on the way back only had 12 people so we had plenty of room and our bus driver was really nice. We stopped at Mossman Gorge to go for a swim but the water was freezing so I actually didn't go in and then we stopped in Port Douglas which is a really pretty and quite fancy resort town. We arrived back at our hostel around 6:30 and were extremely rushed because we had to take a 7:00 bus into Cairns for our "Ultimate Party" pub crawl. We probably wouldn't have sought this out on our own but it was included in our package and dinner was included. We also had the best free dinner we have had so far, and it turned out to be a really fun night. There were also two Danish boys that Lindsay and I had met in Noosa that were on the pub crawl with us, so it was really fun to randomly run into friends we thought we would never see again.
We finally let ourselves sleep in, and then walked over to the lagoon to spend the afternoon. It was Lauren's "last night" in Australia so we decided we should go out for a nice dinner and have a fun night out together. We ate a Thai restaurant on the pier which I thought was delicious, I had a spicy green curry (which was really spicy) Lauren was supposed to have the mild green curry, but it was pretty much as spicy as mine and she didn't really enjoy eating it. We had another very fun night out in Cairns and then headed back because Lauren had to catch a very early bus to the airport for her 6:20 am flight. Unfortunately she woke up at 6:30 and realized her "flight" had already left. She packed up everything an headed over to the airport anyways to see if there were any other flights she could get on that day, but when she got to the airport she learned her flight wasn't even that day, it was the next day. She was so lucky!!! and we got to spend another day with Lauren. For our last night we checked out of the beach house and stayed at a really nice hostel called Gilligans which was pretty fancy as far as hostels go. This time Lauren didn't over sleep and got on her real flight no problem. .Lindsay and I had a great time with Lauren and were sad to see her leave, at one point I think we came close to convincing her to postpone med school and stay in OZ for a year. Linds and I were also gone by 6 am because we had to catch a bus to Mt. Molloy where we would be wwoofing for the next week. Hopefully we will have a similar experience to the last time we wwoofed.
Cheers,
Laura