We're back! Exploring the oldest rain forest in the world!

Once we got to New Zealand we had a hard time keeping up with the blog. There were so many fun things going on that catching up and writing about Australia didn't happen. Since the last post we explored more of Australia, spent a summer in New Zealand, I went to Montenegro for a few weeks to visit my parents, and now were back in the US! It's been a hard adjustment coming back (much harder than I thought), but things are going alright. Adam got a contract job for a few months out in Fort Collins, Colorado, so we packed up the car and drove out. I don't think I'm quite ready for work yet, so one of my goals while we are here is finishing the blog. Here we go!

Beautiful coast off Port Douglas

Tons of parakeets in Port Douglas - noisy ones too!

After we packed up our campsite and said goodbye to the cute little rock wallabies we headed towards the picturesque town of Port Douglas. It is on the coast and close rainforest, beautiful beaches, and crocodile territory.

Once we set up camp the first place we explored was Mossman Gorge. It is a great little swimming spot in the Daintree Rainforest - which ison e of the oldest rainforest in the world. I have also heard somewhere in Malaysia claim that they have the oldest, but since we visited Daintree and not Malaysia we will go with Australia on this one. It was smoking hot outside, so a swim in the refreshing waters felt great. I have to admit it took me a while to get in the water. They said there were no crocodiles in this river, but I was a little hesitant...you never know when one of them could go rouge. I have heard of alligators in the Chattahoochee in Atlanta, so the thought of a crocodile wondering less than 20 miles from it's natural habitat didn't seem like a stretch.


Nice swimming hole in the river

After swimming for a bit, we took a short hike through the beautiful rainforest. Australia is known for its unique (and sometimes deadly) animals, and this part of the country is no exception. It is home to the cassowary, which is a large flightless bird kind of similar to an ostrich or emu. It is fairly rare to see one, but if you do they can be aggressive. Some Australians that had been at our campsite had told us some attack stories and techniques to get away from them, so we were prepared. We didn't see any of the birds, but we did keep coming across places on the ground where something had been scratching and digging. That counts right?

dense jungle

After our rainforest walk we headed off in search of crocodiles. The murky water of the Daintree river is a popular spot to take a boat ride to see them in the wild. The river is lined with mangroves and looks like the perfect spot for crocs to live. Our guide, Bruce, had been doing tours for almost 25 years and knew all the crocodiles in the area by name and where they liked to hang out. Crocodiles are pretty lazy animals - they lounge around and sleep for most of the day and like to stick to their territory. I don't think that i would have been so nervous about swimming if the gorge if I had known this. Bruce could pretty much just drive up to where the crocodile sleeps and there it would be! It wasn't near as exciting as I had pictured it to be, but it was still cool to see them in the wild.



where are they?



Bruce even knew where a tree frog likes to hang out



a wee little baby croc



there's mommy

We spent the next day hanging out at the beach in Port Douglas and relaxing. It was box jellyfish season, which is one of the worlds most poisonous creatures, so if you went in the ocean you had to stick to a small area that was surrounded by nets so you knew you were safe.

In the morning we drove down the coast back to Cairns to catch a flight...next stop Sydney!