We planned a full day to explore the rainforests of Daintree. You take a ferry across the Daintree River and there is a road that goes roughly 65 kilometers up to Cape Tribulation. After that point it is an unsealed road (fancy talk for gravel road that you should definitely have 4wd to explore in the case that it gets a bit bumpy or treacherous). This distance seems like something that could easily be covered in a day, but let’s just revisit the fact that we’re all about stopping at every single point of interest, scenic view, etc. and seem to take waaaay longer than we should to make most trips. We left hoping we would could cover everything we wanted to in the span of a day and be back to our hotel for dinner.
Alright, let’s start with the ferry. When I say it’s a “ferry” that might be generous. It’s basically a concrete slab that goes from one side of the river to the other. You can actually see the other side when you board, so it’s not a long trip…maybe 3 minutes across? But the ferry is key as the waters are known to be home to many crocodiles. So swimming across is HIGHLY discouraged! Here’s a view from our ferry…
Once we made it across, we were ready to take on the rainforest for a day of adventure! With a map that expertly laid out our paths as either “road” or “dirt road”, how could we possibly go wrong?! Sue, from our Daintree EcoLodge hotel, had recommended we take a dirt road detour to a beach shortly after we crossed over the river since we had a 4wd vehicle, so that was our first stop. I can’t even explain it, but as soon as we set foot on the beach, I knew Queensland was an incredibly special place. We were on this incredible beach, with no one else around and it just felt like exactly what I’d been hoping for from this trip. The chance to explore and experience amazing places that are outside of the normal tourist zone. Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of folks probably head to this area for sightseeing, but to be able to experience it without anyone else around was pretty incredible. It’s also where I first saw bubbler crabs! I didn’t know what they were at the time, but we went on the beach and saw all these incredible patterns made with little balls of sand. It turns out they are made by bubbler crabs that perfectly scoop out the sand as they dig. So cool to see their holes en masse and the amazing patterns they make!
As beautiful as the beach was, there was NO chance of going swimming. This area is full of saltwater crocodiles and stingers (fierce jellyfish), so any thoughts of a dip in the beautiful water are quickly trumped by common sense after seeing all of the warning signs everywhere!
After exploring the beach, we headed to Cape Kimberley, which offered an amazing scenic lookout of the beach we’d just visited.
Our next stop was Cow Bay. The name Cow Bay is thought to have either come from the farming of cattle in the early days or from the dugongs, or sea cows, (think manatee). Cow Bay was another stunning beach that was all but deserted, but the best part about it was a pretty awesome trapeze/swing that we stumbled upon! It offered a great opportunity for some swinging, acrobatics and excellent dismounts!
After Cow Bay, we were getting pretty close to lunch time, so we decided to power through up to Cape Tribulation and we could hit any other spots on our return trip. We stopped for lunch at Cape Tribulation Beach House for lunch. They have a great little beachfront restaurant so we grabbed lunch there, then decided to explore the beach afterward. They managed to top Cow Bay with what is possibly the best beach swing ever! This beach was the most crowded one we’d seen so far and by “crowded” I mean we probably saw maybe 8-10 others on the beach while there, but Jack had the swing all to himself!
After Cape Tribulation, we headed a bit further north to where the roads bore warning signs for anyone without 4wd. It was an odd sight seeing the lush foliage of the of the rainforest covered in dust next to the dirt road! We meandered up a bit before decided to turn back to make sure we’d have time to hit everything else we wanted to on the way back to the ferry.
We stopped at the Dubuji rainforest trail on our trip back to the ferry. There were some amazing trees with even more amazing root systems on the trail! The Daintree rainforest is a World Heritage Site that contains the highest number of plant and animal species that are rare or threatened with extinction anywhere in the world. The rainforest is also the oldest in the world at over 135 million years old. I really hope that things like this leave an impression on Jack and that he realizes the significance of what he’s had the opportunity to experience. Ecosystems like this are so important to our planet and they are in danger of destruction if everyone doesn’t do their part to protect them. I think it’s hard to fully understand and appreciate that when you’re 7, but we’ll keep trying. 😉
After the trek through the rainforest, Jack was starting to wear a bit then as we’d been spending all day hiking and exploring. So we decided to stop at a swimming hole we’d heard about from some locals that is behind a place called Mason’s Café. It’s crocodile free and if you park and head past the store, a short walk takes you down to a shady, cool swimming hole! This was Jack’s favorite part of the day and to be honest, probably ours as well. It was like we’d stumbled onto our own little slice of heaven…so picturesque, secluded and tranquil (well, it was tranquil until Jack started practicing his belly flops)! 😉
Our last stop of the was at the Daintree Ice Cream Company. It’s a 22 acre orchard where they grow their own fruit for their homemade tropical fruit ice cream. We got there at about 5:15, only to find out they had closed at 5pm! The woman was incredibly nice and offered to let us buy some ice cream anyway while she was closing up. They don’t sell any “regular” ice cream flavors as they are only focused on flavors they can make with the fruit grown from their orchard. We got a sampler cup that included coconut, passion fruit and black sapote ice cream. Black sapote was new to me, but it’s known as the ‘chocolate pudding fruit’, has a crazy high amount of vitamin C and is delicious! So about as healthy as you can get for ice cream. On a side note, how did I live this long and not realize there is a CHOCOLATE PUDDING FRUIT?!
After that it was time to call it a day and head back across the ferry. Our final excitement for the day was that a crocodile “escorted” our ferry across the river on our way back! We’d seen all of the warning signs during all of our stops, but this was our first sighting of an actual croc!
The Detour Diary 