Cape York 2022

Another weirdly slow morning waiting for our tour. Not having to pack up is good, don't get me wrong, it's just weird haha. The Gorge tour started at 10am and there were sooo many people around. We saw a fair few faces we toured with at Undara, including the 2 girls from South Australia. The groups split up and we got Graham as our tour guide. What an absolute legend. He was incredibly knowledgeable and I could listen to him talk all day. We started our tour with the walk through the bush, learning about all of the bush tucker around and what to avoid. The Licorice bush was pretty cool. He told us about the local history, geologically and the land ownership over the years. We walked up the escarpment to Australia's first fully glass bridge, with panels 42mm thick. We had to put little shower caps on our feet to help protect the bridge from scratches. Ben was the first one out on the bridge, surprisingly, it was a bit off-putting but the views were amazing. We made our way back down to the water with more stories from Graham along the way. We finished our 3 hour tour with a boat ride to the end of the accessible part of the gorge and back. At points it was only just wide enough to fit the boat. It's roughly 20m deep along most parts and we saw a little crocodile not far in. Apparently it's not unusual for them to sit out all day, not moving, just opening and closing their mouths to regular their temperature. Such a different and beautiful perspective of the gorge, I would do this tour over and over again. A short bus ride back and we stopped at the restaurant for lunch. Most people had the same idea so we were there a while, but chatted away with other travellers. We shared a burger and chicken Caesar salad for lunch then headed to camp to relax. I had my first short nap of the trip and ben watched netflix for half an hour. We then watched a poor couple battle with their camper for about an hour, they did so many laps, lots of arms flailing about and you could tell they were frustrated the poor buggers. At times they were pushing their camper by hand around to different spots, to then drag it back to its original spot. It was a tad amusing though, Ben was having a great time haha. We eventually got changed and headed up for our stand up paddle board tour. Just 7 of us and Hanjo the tour guide. The SA girls, a lady who has been taking turns with her husband to do tours as they have their dog travelling with them, and 2 of the young pommy workers. We haven't done it before so I was a little nervous, the crocodiles were a factor too but as long as we didn't fall in, we'd be right, surely haha. It was great! The pommy girls were freaking out at times and one half fell in, otherwise we kept nice and dry. Hanjo did say it was strange that the little croc from before was still sitting in the same spot, he said they've usually headed back into the water by now. He also suggested that we don't take our phones as there are many at the bottom of the water from previous tours, but he offered to take them in his kayak to get a few photos, so grateful for that! After an hour on the boards, we headed back and grabbed a drink by the pool. Currently cooking dinner, we'll pack up as much as we can before bed afterwards so we can make an early start tomorrow with a big drive ahead of us to Atherton, lots of stops along the way though. Today will be a tough day to beat.

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