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“One city block of Daintree Rainforest holds 75% of Australia's tree species!” |
There was one main thing Reenie wanted to do when coming to Australia: stay in a treehouse in the rainforest. We found the perfect place to do that: the Daintree Eco Lodge Resort. One small problem, not all the "tree" houses were in trees. When the very nice receptionist took us to our room it was one of the only 2, out of the 15, that were slightly lifted off the ground, about a foot:) Reenie had to change this. So needless to stay we ended up in one of the tallest treehouses they had: simply beautiful! Almost canopy level where we heard birds, lizards, frogs (thankfully no sighted geckos) and many other animals we didn't know existed all day and all night. Our room was awesome! Right from our room was a screened in deck where we had our own spa tub to sit in to listen to the animals in the trees.
Our first night we were signed up for a sunset/evening daintree river cruise. That was about all we knew of the cruise prior to jumping on board with Mr. Riverrat himself! Longggg white beard, huge pot belly and some teeth:) But what a nice and intellegent guy-looks definitely don't tell what type of man he was. He owns his own company, own boat and we lucked out to find it was just us with another 2 people in a outboard, ten seated, aluminum boat. Smaller than any other boat than we would take out into the sound. Quite simply: probably one of the most amazing experiences we have had. All our trust in our lives was dependent upon this guy and boy did he deliver!
Once the sun went down he would spot tiny things from 500 meters with his spot light using only "Eye Shine." He would see the red color of animal's eyes from his spot light and turn the engine to go see it. Up until this point we had been warned about crocodiles in the river but we had never seen any, so we weren't sure how many were there. After a half hour into our trip we saw crocodiles in every size they can come in-small babies to quite large. We never saw the "large one" he talked about, but we saw eyes popping out of the water of large crocs that would go under before getting close. He taught us about the rainforest, the river, the mangroves, the birds, crocs, fish, the cutest green treefrogs ever, the history of the area and even the stars! The trip back was SCARY. Driving full out with no light, pitch black, only the stars but our man knew where he was going after 13 years of doing this.
The rest of our time was dedicated to relaxing after that experience. We treated ourselves to the most amazing spa treatment that was explained to us as a transformation like a caterpillar into a butterfly-pretty crazy.
We are now back in Cairns where we are waiting for our flight back to Melbourne tonight to reunite with the Hairs for our last week in Australia. Tomorrow we are going to an Aussie Rules Football game and then off to a mountain biking camp with Mr. Hair's 4th graders-update will follow after that!
Having a blast but also looking forward to coming home to see all of you!
Kadin and Reenie
previous travel blog entry
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