Our World: Cape Tribulation, Queensland

Seeing as we were staying in Cairns we decided to head north and have an overnight stop up in the Daintree and Cape Tribulation, stopping off at Port Douglas on the way.
Port Douglas is a lovely town and a town you would enjoy if you like eating out, the beach and having a few drinks and coffees in one of the many boutique cafes. We were staying at a beach caravan park, which literally was on the beach. As soon as we arrived we dumped everything and head for the beach. The beach was so clean, and was roughly 4 miles in length. As the sun was shining we decided to walk the full 4 miles there and back before having a nice spot of dinner.

The We set out early with our first stop being the Daintree River. It was here we had booked on to a Daintree River Cruise, where we were hoping to see some of the wildlife that the Daintree has to offer. This predominantly consisted of crocodiles.

At 12pm on the dot we boarded our boat and set off down the river. We learnt that the river was named by Captain James Cook, when he stumbled across it back in the 1700’s. The guide was extremely knowledgeable and told us all about the eco system and how it is still recovering after the banning of crocodile hunting in Queensland in the 1980’s. Hunting of the crocodile was so server in Queensland that the species almost made the endangered species list. He explained that the crocodile was mainly hunted for its skin to make leather products. Even though hunting was banned back in the 1980’s, and recovery of crocodile is doing ‘well’ there is still only a small number of crocodiles in the Daintree. Before hunting there were approximately 200- 300 regular crocs in the Daintree. Almost thirty years on after the ban of hunting there is still only 80 regular crocs that live in the Daintree. The tour guide explained that it will take some 50 – 100 years to get it back to the levels pre croc hunting. We were lucky enough to see three rather large crocodiles while on the tour and visit one female and her nest of baby crocodiles.

Once finished on the river tour it was time to catch a ferry over the Daintree and up to Cape Tribulation. Again the cape was named by Captain Cook. Throughout the afternoon we visited several empty bays. It was amazing; all the bays were so empty it was like having a private beach to ourselves. The waters were absolutely perfect and as you would see in a holiday catalogue. We also took ourselves on some boarded rainforest walks. Later on we decided to head towards the campsite we had booked for the night. Now bare in mind we could have had a lovely beach campsite, Amber had mentioned how she always wanted to stay in the Rainforest, and so without any debate we booked into a lovely campsite nestled into the edge of the rainforest. Once settled in we decided to go for a walk on a not so well maintained pathway into the think of the rainforest. We were hoping that we would see some wildlife, be that a snake, spiders etc. Sure enough we did eventually come across some wildlife. While walking through a narrow path leading the way I heard a stick snap not too far in front. We stopped walking and listened. All of a sudden and out of nowhere a pack of wild pigs came charging at us. Now I bet not many people can say they went for a walk in the rainforest and came across a pack of wild pigs?!?