Big Trip

Another coach trip today, this time to Daintree rainforest. Took a trip up the Daintree river looking for crocs, but only a couple were in evidence: a sleepy female and a little nipper who was too quick for the camera. The rest are spending most of their time in the water, now that the temperature is about right, so that they don't have to keep coming out to sun themselves. Still, I think we saw enough crocs in the NT to keep us going. Interesting fact of the day: there are more species of tree in one hectare of the Daintree rain forest than there are in the whole of Europe. It is renowned for its biodiversity.
We went for a quick skip through the rainforest centre, where there is a tower that shows you the structure of the forest at different heights, which is pretty fascinating. There was surprisingly little wildlife in evidence, but given the number of galumphing tourists, not that surprising, I guess.
Lunch was preceded by a quick swim (though not in the dangerous sea, of course), then back across the river on the cable ferry, and off to Cape Tribulation beach. What a beautiful spot - the rainforest comes right down to the beach, indeed with mangroves growing right at the edge of the sea in places. Then we trolled off to the Daintree Ice Cream Factory, where they make ice creams from unusual ingredients found in the rainforest. We had four flavours: macadamia nut (fairly conventional), jack fruit (again, fairly conventional), wattle seed (a bit like mocha) and black sapote (sort of chocolatey, but not quite, with a sort of muddy taste to it; far from unpleasant). Erin & Max were agreed that the wattle seed was the most unpleasant, the exact opposite of Sarah's & my view, much to our delight, as we had extra portions. Erin simply mixed them all together anyway, but Max thoroughly enjoyed his.
Our final call of the day was for a swim in the beautifully cool Mossman Gorge. Clean, flowing water, and a great way to cool off before getting back on the bus once more.
I think we're agreed that we've done enough bus tours now - they try to pack a bit too much in, and we've started to mind being herded, and having to get on & off a bus all the time. However, there's not much more of our trip that is likely to include them, so we're not worried. Tomorrow's our last day in Port Douglas. On Friday we're off to Brisbane & Moreton Island, hoping to see some more dolphins, & maybe even feed some. Back to the packing...