Northern Queensland - part 2

 Continuing my daily diary of our adventure in the tropics:

MONDAY 20th Jan

A day at nearby Mossman Gorge in the lower Daintree Rainforest in an area known as the Wet Tropics of Queensland - a World Heritage site. Roughly 180 million years old, predating the Amazon rainforest.

There are aerial walkways but it is also a popular bathing spot. However, the heavy rains of the previous evening had led the park authorities to declare it a non-swimming day due to the potentially dangerous currents. However, we came to a spot that was fairly flat and mostly shallow and noticed that there were many people in the water there so we decided to join them:

We took a walk round the trails after that:

TUESDAY 21st Jan

This was the day when our 6-seater van had to be returned to Cairns and we would pick up a couple of Jeeps for our drive tomorrow deeper in to the Daintree Forest, simulating a Jurassic Park experience for the boys. We had time on the way down to Cairns to stop off at Hartley's Crocodile Adventures where the first stop was a boat ride in the swamp:

Camouflaged croc heads popped up everywhere. Then it was off to the crocodile feeding show. Some of the staff were very brave, feeding them by hand. Others used a safer method:

The Cassowary has a reputation for being aggressive and one of the last of the dinosaurs but this one was pretty docile:

Other sights there were:

Termite hill

Once we'd finished there we headed down to Cairns, picked up the Jeeps and joined Kelly and the boys in the huge beachfront lagoon. Then it was time to head north again in time for our evening meal. A lot of places were either shut, unsuitable or too busy but we managed to get an outdoor table at Chilly's Pizza & Trattoria where there was the added "attraction" of it being Cane Toad Race Night: