Cape Tribulation

Tracing back out steps, Cape Tribulation had changed so much , the cyclone in Dec 2023 has took a toll on the area and economically you could see a lot of closed businesses.
We found Dragonfly which sadly was closed , we had fond memories of the wooden restaurant with the turtle pond out front , later we were to discover that the turtle pond had been the scene of an awful accident which involved one of the local kids drowning in the pond that ripped apart a small community!

I booked the famous Daintree croc spotting boat trip down the Daintree river and it so happened that the same chap and same boat took us 17 years ago down the same river. Chatting to him I discovered a lot of backpackers return years later with their own family , 35 years he’d been taking tourists down the Daintree.
The Daintree water rises up to 2metres , the tide line can be seen within the mango groves growing on the river banks , you could see odd yellow leaves scattered amongst the lush greenery, the mango groves had adapted to the salt water and the yellowing of odd leaves was the tree extracting the salt through dead leaves.
We saw 4 crocs, 2 female , 1 baby which I couldn’t see!? And a rouge male sitting on the sandy banks near the river entrance from the sea.
Each part of the Daintree is inhabited with one female, sadly croc man told us one day he witnessed one of the females having a really bad day and attacked and ate a five year old right in front of the boat, if you think about it Croc man has been watching these predators grow up have kids for 35 years to see such a viscous attack on another animal of the same species must of been quite disturbing!?

We left cape trib behind thanking Dan for sharing his land in the rain forest, glad to leave the intense heat and humidity , I have no idea how we ever survived this place back in Jan 2007, remembering back the air conditioning in the camper van was the trick to survive the rainforest during that time of year. We drove onto the ferry and crossed the Daintree for the last time, heading South we began our Monmouth trip to the tablelands and across the outback, destination walkabout creek hotel!Read more