We have made it to the northern most part of our trip, the Daintree rainforest, part of the world Heritage listed area. During the time we stayed there we had lots of ice cream including flavours like, Yellow Sapote, Black Sapote, Wattleseed and Soursop which were interestingly yummy.

On our first day we did a long walk along the beach and flew our kites. We also did a walk through the rainforest and caught a very brief glimpse of a cassowary through the trees. We learn about the different species of mangrove trees of how they survive. We ended the day by going to the Discovery Centre. On entry they gave us each an audio guide to do a self-guided tours through the rainforest. One walk included going up a 23 metre high canopy tower.  Half way up Dad did not go any further because he didn’t like how high he was so we continued to the very top where we looked over the huge trees around us. Along the other walks were massive strangler trees and Kauri pines. There was a reptile room with snakes and lizards on display. It was fascinating to learn about the Wet Tropics rainforest, how old they are, some plants are over 350 million years old, and the incredible diversity of plants, animals and insects that exist.

Lilah, Mum and I went on a horse ride along the beach. On the way to the beach we saw a crocodile  resting on the opposite bank in the mud. When we arrived at the beach Dad met us and took pictures of us. Lilah’s horse started to play in the water and was splashing water everywhere. It was a great way to explore the rainforest and the beach and was much better than walking.

Coconuts the perfect paradise fruit, heaps of trees along the beach full of coconuts,  but how are we supposed to get them down? We found four on the ground which had water in them and Dad got one down from the tree by throwing dead washed up coral from along the beach. We gathered the coconuts and started for the coconut spike. Dad worked like a machine smashing away the husk so the nut was left, once we smashed the shell in half when the husk wasn’t off so we drank it and it was  delicious.

Our one last stop was a crocodile cruise, we saw a juvenile crocodile, the dominate male Scarface and one of his eleven odd girlfriends, Elizabeth. Scarface is around 60-70 years old and because he was the dominant male in the territory he only had four teeth left because of all the fights and scars on his face hence his name. The boat was an electric boat powered by the sun. It was hot and cramped on the small boat full of plump middle aged Poms. But worth sweating it out to see crocodiles in the wild.

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