Living Out My Dream in the Magical Sunshine Coast!: Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest!

On Sunday morning we woke up at 7 and got ready for our tour to the Daintree Rainforest. The Daintree Rainforest is the oldest rainforest in the world and there are 700 different types of trees there (for comparison, there are only 70 in all of North America). Anyways, the office in the hostel wasn't open yet so we gave our keys to Sam and left our stuff in our room with him even though we weren't positive we'd be in the same room when we came back. We got in the van and went around and picked up people from other hostels. It ended up being all girls, except for the tour guide! The guide had forgotten something at his house so we went to get it and got to meet his adorable son. Then we rode in the van for a few hours on the MOST beautiful drive I've ever been on. The view was absolutely stunning. I tried to take pictures but they don't do it justice at all. I was so tired but couldn't peel my eyes away from the window. Then we stopped at a little cafe place and I got a shortcake cookie. Then we headed to the place where we'd be taking a crocodile cruise. On the cruise we saw one large female crocodile and a few baby crocs who were around 4 months old. I thought we were going to see more crocodiles but because the weather was warmer, meaning the water was also warmer, most of the crocodiles were in the water so we couldn't see them. After the tour, we took a short bus ride to a walkway through the rainforest. It was awesome! We saw soooo many cool plants that I had never seen before!

Such a beautiful drive!

There were cassowary signs EVERYWHERE but we didn't see a single one the whole time! Cassowaries are extremely endangered and are only found in part of Australia and Papua New Guinea. They're endangered because there are 20 million feral pigs in Australia and these pigs eat cassowary eggs. They also get hit by cars and their habitats get ruined during cyclones. They are the 2nd largest bird in the world and are the only kind of bird that has killed people (it kicks them). Apparently, if you see one you're supposed to hide behind a tree because they have a horrible memory so they'll forget you're there haha!

Daintree River

The big female croc

~4 month old crocodile!

There were cassowary crossing signs everywhere because they often get hit by cars. So somebody vandalized this road hump sign and turned it into a dead cassowary. The sign has become famous and is on t-shirts and everything!

These are SO cool!!! I forget exactly how they're made or what they're called but basically they form around pre-existing trees and eventually kill the tree leaving it hollow... anybody know what they're called?

These are called Basket Ferns and they're awesome!

They were HUGE

So we found some green-head ants and our tour guide told us we could lick their butts and it would have a lime-like flavor. I decided to be brave and did it and it was actually crazy! The taste was really powerful and hard to describe, kind of sour haha!

Fish!

This was a HUUGEEEE snake skin! SO cool!

After our walk, we got back in the van and headed to our hostels. A girl named Charlene from southern Australia, Amy and I were staying in a hostel called Ferntree. Amy and I made PB&Js (by the way, Aussies don't eat PB&Js... crazy!). Then we went to the beach, which was SO beautiful!!! Charlene and I went in the water and then went on a walk. She told me all about how she went to China and got to work with pandas and about how she has a small pet behavior business and was so interesting to talk to!

Hippie campers! I want one!

Pretty soon I'm going to have to worry about jellyfish every time I get in the ocean :(

This is the only place in the world where 2 world heritage areas (Daintree Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef) meet! So cool!!!

Awesome spider web

Then we went back to the hostel to get ready for our jungle surfing canopy tour. A van came and picked us up to take us there. There were four of us from the rainforest tour and some other people including an adorable family with young kids. Jungle surfing (aka zip lining through the rainforest) was MAGICAL!!! We went on five zip lines, from tree to tree. It was so cool!

I thought the helmets were hilarious

Amy with one of the guides

Barbie, George of the Jungle, Pocahontas and Nemo!

The back of the helmets were funny too haha

Blondes have more fun

"Where the rainforest meets the reef"

So fun!!!

This was the first zip line and it was slower than the others:

I gave Amy my camera to take a video of me:

We got to go upside down on the last one, which was sooooo cool!:

After our last zipline, we went and checked out a nature center/store that had snakes in it. Then we went to a little outdoor restaurant where I ordered a chicken schnitzel (do we even use that word in the US? it's basically just a chicken sandwich). Then we headed back to the hostel and showered and then went to the bar in the other hostel to meet up with some of the other girls from our tour. We ordered "chips" and just sat and talked and watched a hilarious little boy dance haha. On our walk back to the hostel it was REALLY dark and we were in the middle of the rainforest and had just heard about how many poisonous animals there are, so we were a little nervous. All of a sudden the three of us freaked out because we saw something in the distance.... it ended up being two people just walking down the road haha! Then we saw a cane toad, which is an invasive species in Australia that I had heard a lot about but had never seen. Then when we got back to our room I was making my bed when I found a skink in it!!! It was small so I just caught it in my hands and put it outside. Then I read and we all went to bed pretty early.

They kept trying to steal our food!

Chicken Schnitzel

Cane toad!

Skink in my bed! He would've been cute if he wasn't in my bed...

On Monday I woke up at 9:15. Amy had signed up to go horse back riding and Charlene had already left for the beach, so it was just me. I got ready and signed out and headed to the beach, where I laid out and read. Then I met up with everybody when they were eating lunch and made my microwavable soup. Around one the van came to pick us up. We drove to a beautiful lookout where I, of course, took a ton of photos. Then we went to an ice cream place, but I didn't get any because it was $6 haha! Then we took the ferry back across the river and headed to a place where we listened to an aboriginal woman talk about different plants and all the things they can be used for and then listened to a man play the didjeridoo. Then we went to a river that was so pristine that we could drink the water straight from it, which was amazing because it was so cold!

This was our hostel! It was one of my favorites that I've stayed in so I was really disappointed to find out that they're shutting down soon. Apparently it's really hard for any business to stay open for long in the rainforest since it's so secluded from everything else

On our drive! So beautiful!!!

This was a leaf that she crushed up and it turned into foam/soap... so crazy!

Amy said that her grandmother had always told her that river water is good for your hair (anybody know if that's true?), but she didn't want to go swimming, so she dunked her hair in the water!