Day 2 - Port Douglas

After another night of loud rainforest noises and jumping at every thing we thought sounded / looked like it would kill us, it was safe to say we didn't get a great nights sleep. We also had some serious rainforest rain over night which resulted in us waking up with soggy feet again. This time due to a hole in the shelter over the caravan and a leaky roof hatch. We were already pros at the leaky van scenario so we simply grabbed a saucepan and slid it underneath.

We didn't let the rain dampen our spirits and headed out to Mossman Gorge. Unfortunately a few of the must do activities here included swimming in various spots but due to the heavy rainfall it was not advised (we soon saw why when we got there as the rivers were moving really fast). We bought our tickets and drove up to the gorge on the shuttle bus. There we had a short boardwalk to some lookouts over the various creeks and a suspension bridge to a nice gorge lookout. At the other side of the bridge there was also a 2.5km loop track. We had raincoats and have done plenty of walks in worse weather, so we plodded on. In less than an hour, having seen various flora and fauna including our first fig tree, (these fungal plants grow around and eventually kill their host tree) we were back at the suspension bridge. By the time we had made it back to the shuttle bus stop the rain had gone so we decided to have lunch on a picnic table before making our way back to the car park.

In the afternoon we went back to Port Douglas for a walk around the shops. Afterwards we went for a stroll along Four Mile Beach. I'm not sure if it is really four miles long but we walked until we got bored and turned back around. Blake also took a lot of delight kicking the perfectly round balls of sand back into the bubble crab holes from which they'd been painstaking dug out, poor things. Once back to the car it was back to the caravan.

When we walked back into the caravan Blake was sure she saw something big scuttle up the boiler so we spent 20 minutes with torches trying to find it. Nothing was found so I wasn't entirely convinced that she had seen anything at all and was just being paranoid. Later on in bed, just having turned the light off I realise I had left my phone in my shorts and needed to set an alarm. As I turned the light on we saw two things run in different directions on the wall but this time we could make out they were geckos. After one escaped and the other being too fast for me and my washing bowl and hiding behind the fridge, it was another few hours before either of us could finally get to sleep, as we could then hear them pitter patter around the caravan.Read more