September 9 - spring break trip

Last night I was again the only person in my hostel room. This morning I got up at 6:00, packed, ate breakfast, and was ready for the tour bus to pick me up at 7:45. Our bus driver/tour guide had a great sense of humor and talked fairly frequently on the trip about the history, people, and landmarks of some of the things we pased. The bus was full of many foreigners and only one American that I knew of, and few or now Australians. I ended up sitting beside a Scottish girl named Jenny. She's pretty much traveling the world by working in most of the countries she's visiting, thus financing her travels and getting to experience more of their cultures. I asked Jenny about some of the countries she's been to, and asked her which was her favorite country out of all the ones she had been to, and she said the U.S.A.! It made me kinda proud when she said that. She had been across the whole country, and she said she especially liked the western states and that it was some of the most beautiful and best places she's ever been. I need to travel around my own country sometime instead of doing all this overseas stuff. ;)

The drive to Cape Tribulation was beautiful, and the last hour or so was on narrow, winding, coastal road. The ocean was often visible just a short distance from the road, and rainforest came right up to the road in many places. The roads actually reminded me a little of roads back home, only more tropical. We stopped at a cafe about half way up to stretch our legs (and buy food if we wanted). We also stopped at the Daintree River where we took a boat tour of the river to look for crocodiles. We ended up seeing a green tree snake up in one tree and were lucky enough to also spot a saltwater crocodile swimming along the shore! It was really neat to see a crocodile in the wild. The river boat ride ended on the other side of the river, where the ferry unloaded and our bus was already waiting for us. There was a table set up here where a lady was selling fresh harvested bananas at $5/kg, so a lot of us bought bananas. I bought two bananas for a total of only $1.50. They turned out to be some of the tastiest bananas I've ever eaten! mmmm!

We arrived at 12:30 at Cape Tribulation and I changed into shorts once I had gotten assigned my bed in 7-bed room in a cabin dorm. After I changed I walked out to the beach (a 1-2 minute walk down a trail through the rainforest). The beach was beautiful -- wide, flat, with white sand and almost no people. There was a boardwalk just a short walk down the road, so I went and did that after I visited the beach. The boardwalk was probably about one mile long, winding through some of the most beautiful rainforest I have ever seen. The trees and vegetation came right up to the boardwalk, and I saw several birds, including an orange-footed scrubfowl that came pretty close to me on the boardwalk.

After exploring the boardwalk I went back to the beach and walked up to the point of cape tribulation. At one point I saw and Osprey that flew around, then dove into the ocean to try to catch a fish. He didn't seem to be successful, but it was neat to see him dive. It was a little weird to see an Osprey dive into the ocean, as I'm used to seeing them flying around the inland lakes back home. Ospreys must be very adaptable and are definitely very widely distributed around the globe!

Back at the hostel and store right next to the hostel, I ran into Taylor and Ali, a couple of Canadians who were in my scuba diving group the other day. I talked to them a bit about how amazing Cape Tribulation is and what their plans were for here, and after they leave Cape Trib. After I said bye to them I went into the store and bought some food. Food was expensive here, and a loaf of bread was $5. I planned this tour to allow me two days in Port Douglas and one day at Cape Tribulation, but after exploring this afternoon I decided to switch my stay to two days here at the cape, and only one in Port Douglas. There's a trail up a mountain just up the road, and I want to try hiking that tomorrow in addition to just enjoying the natural beauty of where "the rainforest meets the reef".

Tonight my dorm had three Italians, myself, and two British girls. I talked for a while to the two British girls and one Italian guy for quite a while before we all went to bed. It's amazing how wherever I go up here at Cape Tribulation I rarely ever walk past anyone that's speaking English! Although Australia's an officiall English-speaking country, the almost exclusive presence of tourists in Cape Tribulation makes you almost feel like you must be in a different country altogether -- one where every other person speaks a completely different language!It's an interesting change from what I'm used to.