Cairns Chapter: Cape Tribulation Day Tour

Beside being a departure point to Great Barrier Reef, Cairns also offers fantastic landscape nearby. One of the famous attraction is Cape Tribulation and Daintree National Park. We took Cape Trib Connection’s Cape Tribulation Day Tour and it was one of best outdoor experience in Queensland.

This is the route of our trip that day, and following are places that we visited.

Our first stop was Daintree Rain Forest. The tour guide, David is so knowledgeable about the many species of the plant that we encounter. He also very passionate about all the thing that we saw. Once he told us that this red big ant was edible, and so he ate it and some of the tourist in our group ate it too, but not me 🙂 Along the walk he put his shoes off (Yes, literally), and walk across the forest. That’s how natural he is. I think this universe loves him!

The difference between the rain-forest and “other” kind of forest is that the rain-forest has a certain humidity that the moss and other kind of plants growing on the tree trunk. Along the walk, we could see many kinds of unique plant. It felt like we were on a School Group going to a biology outdoor class. Such a fun day it was.

Since you will explore the forest in a daylight, it’s better to have sunscreen, and insect spray (just to scare away the mosquito or other insects). Wear a hat and sunglasses if you must.

​Cape tribulation beach is located next to a Forest (at least the part of the beach that we visited). It’ not the kind where so many people flooded the beach, so it was nice to play around for a while, feeling the sands on your feet.

After the beach, the tour brought us to the Daintree river. It’s about 1 hour ride around the river. During the tour, IF we were lucky, we supposed to spot crocodiles. But we weren’t (blessed?) with such a chance. After thoroughly swept the river, we only spot one or two baby crocodiles. These baby crocs didn’t immediately recognizable if it weren’t our guide pointing out. His eyes busily scanned the water and the area where the water and the land meets, and where the mangroves roots set in. I think the ride was attractive because of the anticipation of seeing crocodile emerge from the river. By the end of the tour, I didn’t know if I should be sad or thankful for not seeing/meeting the crocodiles. I didn’t want to end up like those characters in Lake Placid Movie anyway.

Visiting Mossman Gorge probable the best part of the tour that I love the moss. It was late in the afternoon, the sun was ready to set, and water on the Mossman gorge was warm. And after day full of walks, it was such a perfect closure.

Mossman gorge is in Mossman river, it was flanked in between forest and part of Daintree National Park. What makes it beautiful is that the river is decorated with big rocks and the water is so clear.

After getting back from the tour, me and my friend strolled the city. I was pretty surprised with the hype. I was expecting a more quite night in the city.

We walked around the esplanade, the museum, and back to our hostel. It was such a great adventure that day, Not bad Queensland, not bad at all.