Day Nine

Thursday, June 17th, 2:38pm Daintree Rainforest National Park, temp 27C

Wednesday, June 16th, Cairns
We had decided to rent a car in Cairns and drive ourselves up to Daintree, about 2.5 hrs north if you don't stop. Early Wednesday morning, Julie and I walked to Hertz and rented a Camry, 3 days for about $250AUD. Originally we were going to do a tour but decided driving ourselves up would give us more freedom and save us money. The big question is who would drive on the wrong side of the road? I volunteered to drive since I had spent a year in Hong Kong living "the opposite side" of what we do in the US. The car rental clerk handed me the keys to the car and the maps to Julie, we headed out and of course I head for the left side of the car instead of the right side. As I start the car i tell myself "left side, left side, must stay on the left side of the road". We drove to the hotel to pick up Carole & Judy and load luggage, only a slight problem with almost doing a U-turn at the wrong place but got it straighted out, no worries as the Aussies say.

We took Captain Cooks highway all the way up to Daintree. We made multiple stops, our first main stop was at Port Douglas. Beautiful beaches with nice warm water. The weather was perfect, blue sky and about mid 80's F or 27C. We drove into town and walked the shops and had a nice cool beer in an Irish Pub. Continued our drive north stopping many times to take beautiful photos. We did find a WWII memorial off the beaten highway for a young girl who was the only civilian casuality in Eastern Australia.

To get to Daintree you have to take a vehicle ferry across the Daintree River, 5 minute trip. It was an amazing drive, gorgous sites with very narrow roads on our way to the hotel. We arrived around 6 pm, checked in & headed out for dinner. Had a nice relaxing dinner of grilled and fried fresh local fish, seafood platter and white wine. After dinner we deaded back to the hotel, hoping we would NOT run into a Cassowarry (huge blue turkey, hope to spot one for a photo opp). The drive back to the hotel was so dark unlike anything I have experienced. We played cards and shared a couple of bottles of wine from McLarne Vale are (wine country outside of Adelaide). It rained all night (really, in a rainforest???), I had my earplugs in so the rain & birds did not keep me awake unlike my roommate Julie.

We did not get up too early today, got on the road about 9ish, stopped for meat pie breakfast and made our way up north. There is only one road in Daintree Rainforest, pretty narrow and thankfully I stayed on the left side of the road. It has not been difficult driving on the left, just have to focus a little harder. We stopped at a couple different locations to go on the walk paths through the Rainfoest, the walks usually took about half an hour to forty five minutes. It was nice & relaxing with informative stops along the way. We also stopped at Cape Tribulation Beach and walked along the surf, again the weather is PERFECT. So relaxing and gorgous views.

We booked our snorkling trip to the Great Barrier Reef for tomorrow morning. I am going to try & scubba dive but have gotten a slight cold (sinus) and we have an early Friday morning flight which might be a problem for my ears. Once I am on the boat and can talk to the guides, they will help me determine if it will be safe for me. The other three will be snorkling. I can't wait to see the Great Barrier Reef, this is a place that is on my "to do list".

Interesting things:
Aunt Carole has picked up an interesting accent during our trip
Judy is a great traveler for having just met the day of our flight over
Lemmingons are a great coconut/chocolate cake snack, thanks Christine for introducing us!

Well, I better sign off for now. The other three are sitting in the car drinking beer waiting for me.