Into the Daintree

Another day, another magnificent World Heritage-listed site. We spent today on a day tour to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforst, the oldest rainforest in the world, having existed for 100 million years. We drove through the sugar cane plantations, where Australians both introduced the noxious cane toad and also experimented in slavery under the guise of "blackbirding". We took a cruise along the Daintree River, where we saw a large juvenile crocodile hiding under the mangroves to cool down and White-lipped Green Tree Frogs. We then walked through the Daintree rainforest/mangrove forest along the Marrdja boardwalk, seeing the ancient plants and insects of the forest. We had lunch at Cape Tribulation after a walk along the beach, and stopped off at Alexandria look-out, Mossman Gorge and Port Douglas. The tour was soured slightly by our guides, who seemed quite nice but acted like complete stoners trying to film  "Bill and Ted's Excellent Rainforest Adventure", just spouting urban legends rather than anything informative. Luckily the tour was saved by sheer chance when, on the drive back to Cairns through the rainforest, two Cassowaries stepped out of the rainforest in front of us and calmly walked across the road in front of the truck. I had never though we would have a chance of seeing this magnificent, rare, beautiful and dangerous bird in the wild.