July 31 The Daintree and Cape Tribulation

The rain forests of the Daintree region are one of my favourite areas of all the places we've been to. The trip to Cape Tribulation crosses the Daintree River via a ferry and then winds slowly and steeply through the forests. The drive is beautiful. We stayed one night in one of the two camping grounds that allowed dogs, then moved to the other one for the second night. Neither were particularly good, except for the exceptional surroundings. Unfortunately, it rained during our visit - I guess we are in a rain forest after all. But it was disappointing not to enjoy the beaches there.

Views of the misty mountains from our camp site

Going for a boardwalk through the rain forest

The native animals have right-of-way on the boardwalks

Our morning view from the van after a wet and windy night

A real cassowary on the side of the road just before we ran over it
... only kidding.

July 30 - Cooktown

After leaving Mareeba, we went further north to Cooktown. Cooktown is where the bitumen ends, so that is as far north in Queensland as we will go on this trip. Cooktown is, as the name suggests, one of the places in Australia where Captain James Cook went ashore.

Black Mountain, just south of Cooktown. An amazing sight.
These piles of black granite rocks just appear out of nowhere.

The statue of James Cook with his dog that looks just like our Princess

The lighthouse errected on the high point of Cooktown.
The lighthouse was actually built in England and shipped to Australia.

Impressive views of the sea

Impressive views of Endeavour River - named after Cook's ship

Split rocks on the beach near Cooktown

 

Princess meets the Cassowary, which is a famous native bird found in this area.
OK, this one isn't real, but we did get to see a couple by the roadside.