Week 1 - Cape Tribulation

Six of my friends and I decided to take a 3 day trip during the week between the time we arrived and when orientation started. We went to the on-campus travel agent and decided upon Cape Tribulation, a town on the northeastern tip of Australia. It is in the middle of the Daintree Rainforest and borders the Coral Sea.

In order to meet our deadlines, we had to leave right after booking our trip. We took a greyhound bus from Townsville to Cairns, where we would catch a tour bus up to the cape the next morning. The bus was 6hrs long, but we got to watch a movie and sleep a little before arriving at about 1AM. We walked a short way to a hostel where we got beds for $17. We didn't get much sleep since there were a few rowdy people yelling in the downstairs bar and we had to wake up at 7AM anyway, but we were grateful to have a bed to sleep in.

We thought the company we booked the trip through was only going to provide basic transportation up the Cape Trib, but it really included a tour and a few activities along the way. We stopped and took a river tour of the Daintree River, where we saw lots of crocodiles from the boat! We also saw a bunch of snakes sitting in the trees. We also stopped and took a hike through the rainforest with our tour guide, who knew almost everything about each plant and animal in the forest. She was very enthusiastic and stopped to pick up every bug, poisonous or not, to show us.

Before the crocodile tour

Baby crocodile!!
Exploring the Daintree Rainforest

Golden orb spider, just chilling on the side of the path. This thing is huge.
Awesome buttress roots

The place we stayed at was a bunch of cabins surrounded by rainforest. We had the cheapest kind - dorm style, aka bunkbeds, but that was fine with us! The cabin settlement also had a restaurant and bar right next to the beach. Maren, Hannah, and I decided to walk down the beach to a swimming hole on the map. It took an hour to walk there, but the beach was beautiful and the swimming hole was really cool, since we were right in the forest! The water was crystal clear and there was a ropeswing that we jumped off of.

Our cabin

The swimming hole
Maren and I

In the next few days the group split up to do different activities that the area offered. I went to an exotic fruit farm and tasted tons of different tropical fruits. They were DELICIOUS! My favorite was called a guanana.

The fruit we tasted

Passionfruit

Maren and I went on a sea kayaking tour one morning, where we paddled around the cape. It was really windy off the cape, so it was hard paddling over huge waves, but that made it fun! We made it to the other side, which the guide says only happened 4-5 times in the past 6 weeks. People usually get tired and the group turns around, but our group made it. He picked up some coconuts from the shore and cracked them, and we got to drink the milk and eat the flesh.

When we went out on the beach at night, the stars were AMAZING. We could see the milky way and thousands of stars.

On our last day, the tour company picked us up again and on the way back to Cairns we stopped at Mossman's Gorge, a pretty river, and walked around Port Douglass, a cute town. They dropped us at the bus station and we caught a greyhound back to Townsville. It was a great trip!