The Trials Of Cape Tribulation

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Cape Trib was just amazing. Apart from all the activities we did: a crocodile spotting cruise, jungle surfing, a wildlife night walk, horse-riding on the beach and a few nature walks; you could just spend the whole time here relaxing on the beach or by the pool in the hostel, just soaking up the laid back tropical atmosphere.

Everything here is so different to anything I've seen outside of this part of Queensland. The flora and fauna, the weather, the beaches. It's beautiful. It's all green rainforest, turquoise sea and white sandy beaches for as far as the eye can see. There are mountains rising up from the beach all around, stunning.

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On our first day we decided to go jungle surfing. This is, basically, a bunch of Australian maniacs, the guides, tying you to a zip line and firing you between trees in the middle of the rainforest canopy. The longest one being over 80m, 20m above the ground. Pretty daunting on the first attempt, and I was the first to go on every zip line. Well, it actually wasn't that nerve racking, it could've been a bit faster, but it was still a lot of fun, especially the last one - upside-down!

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On the second day we took it easy, although we did something very silly, not out of ignorance, but out of being naive. We were told not to cross a small creek that entered the sea at high tide, basically after about 5 in the evening. When we returned from a walk to another hostel, the Beach House, the creek looked very different , kind of full! We knew there were crocodiles in the area, but it didn't look too deep, so I walked up and down to check for them, then entered the water. I thought it was about 1 o clock, so it would be safe (it turned out to be past 3!). When I got to the middle I was way more than waist deep. I was crapping my pants. I felt helpless, and probably was. Some very scary thoughts were running through my head at that point. There'd be nothing I could do! When I finally made it we thought twice about Karolina crossing, but she decided, if I was watching, it should be ok. Luckily there were none in the area or we'd have been dead. Well, Karolina anyway, I would've attracted them with my splashing but got out in time. We were told later that what we did was incredibly stupid and we were lucky not to have been hurt or even killed! Bloody tourists. Never again, I've learned my lesson. I'll not be crossing swollen creeks anytime soon!

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After we got over all the commotion of the river crossing, we decided to embark on a wildlife tour of the rainforest, at night. We were greeted by the same madman that had taken us jungle surfing the previous night. He was a really cool bloke though, and didn't crack when Karolina constantly abused him. The wildlife here is unbelievable, the highlight for me being the Web-casting Spider (or Ogre-faced Spider). This little fella waits and waits until its prey crosses a piece of web, which the spider can see in ultra-violet, kind of like an intruder alarm, then bang, it slings a net over the unsuspecting insect, and wraps it up, dangling it from a leaf until it gets hungry, amazing! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net-casting_spider

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We also saw a few Huntsmen, spiders that can grow as big as a human hand, a couple of Boyds' Forest Dragons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyd%27s_Forest_Dragon , some tree frogs, and an Orange-footed Scrubfowl. The Scrubfowl was asleep high up in the tree hiding away from snakes, something which the guide had never seen before.

Under construction.......

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Lace Monitor, Orange-footed Scrubfowl, Boyd's Forest Dragon  , Huntsman, Brown Tree Frog, Net-casting Spider (Ogre-faced Spider)