The Daintree Rain Forest Tour

The next morning we were up early for our Daintree tour.  It was raining just a little bit and we hoped it wasn’t going to affect our tour at all.   Our tour driver arrived and let us know that everything was still good and we’d do the tour rain or shine.  We brought our rain jackets  just in case but it turned out to be a great day and the rain quickly went away.

The Daintree tour included a lot of different stops and it was a full day tour lasting until about 5 pm.  As soon as the tour started we knew we had the right tour guide.  He was 100% Australia down to the hat and everything and you could tell it wasn’t just for show.  He was a really great tour guide who really enjoyed what he did.   Just look at the picture of this guy and you know he’s the real deal!

Our first stop on the tour was to see (hopefully) an crocodile on the river.   We all made our way down to a small boat that took our group out on a river.  The river was nice and calm and he pointed out birds and gave us some bits of information about the wild life in the area.  We were nearing the turn around point and finally came across the one and only crocodile we would encounter.   It was Ashley’s first time seeing one in the wild and only my second time so it was a neat experience.

After the boat tour we all jumped back in our tour bus.  Our tour group had about 8 other people beside us on the trip.  Unfortunately no one really clicked on this tour as the group was all over the board but our tour guide more than made up for it.  He was so lively and entertaining that he really made it a fun experience.   Our next stop was at a beach area just to get out and stretch our legs a bit.  He also provided tea, coffee, and a small snack for us which was much needed since we hadn’t eaten breakfast yet.     One thing that we learned on the tour was the you actually can’t go swimming off the coast in Australia whenever you want.  The stingers (jellyfish) will actually kill you there and they are a big threat.  The tour guide told us multiple times how safe Australia was but also told us numerous ways the environment would kills us…

We had a bit of a drive ahead of us next and the tour guide entertained the whole way.  In addition, the scenery along the way made it entertaining too. We made our way through some off road type conditions until we eventually made our way to a large waterfall.  We had a short hike to make it over to the water fall where the passed out various fruits to the group while we stood around checking out the water fall.

After the water fall we made our way to another stop off point near the water.  This area turns into just sand during low tide so we were able to walk out a ways and check it out.  It didn’t look like there was a lot there at first and he was just telling us some general information again about the area.   As we got closer we noticed large dark masses on the ground.  As we approached those dark masses started to move.   We quickly realized that there were hundreds (or thousands) of tiny little crabs clustered in groups.   They would move away as soon as you got close but they are stayed in their little group as they did.  I don’t know why but I found that to be one of the most entertaining parts of the entire tour!

After we met the crab army it was time to head to a late lunch.  Ashley and I were both starving at this point.   The location for lunch was in the middle of the rain forest on someone’s property.  They allowed the tour groups to stop there and check out the area and have lunch which was really nice.   The lunch was excellent and included steak and chicken which was impressive since we were pretty remote at this point.  After lunch we walked around the property a little bit checking out the area.

Once we completed lunch we were off to do the rain forest walk.   The walk consisted of about half a mile on a track just checking out the rain forest.   On the way we saw eels in the water, lots of lizards, and obviously a lot of different plants and things we weren’t used to seeing.  The guide pointed out one plant and made sure that we all knew not to touch that plant under any circumstances.  It was a harmless looking leaf type plant but once touched it had small fibers that contained poison that would render you extremely sick and has also been known to cause death in some cases.    Sure buddy, Australia is safe!

After our forest walk we made our way back to the van and loaded up for our trip back to the hostel.  It was a long day but a good one.  We ended up taking a car ferry across a river which was a first for both Ashley and myself!   On the way home the guide asked us what we wanted to listen to.   One girl responded that she wanted to listen to what traditional Australian’s would listen to.   He nodded his head and promptly played Down Under by Men at Work and it was the perfect ending to our tour!