23 - Australia

Walking to breakfast this morning was interesting....I saw these berries on the ground - not sure what tree they are from but truly and vivid color!

A bunch of noisy bats.

A huge tree that had little "nodules" growing in the bark.  They appeared to be part of the tree, not a lichen or anything like that.

First walk was to the point of Cape Tribulation.  Jelly fish are often seen in the waters - and they provide a quick antidote at most of the public access beaches - vinegar.

Walk to the beach - just jungle-y.

Desolate beach!  The population of Cape Tribulation is just 303....so I guess the miles of beaches are often deserted!

A different rainforest walk...

This time thru some mangroves.

Different beach....

Pretty flower out on the trail.

More beach photos....we walked about 6 miles today.  Had lunch at a "beach bar"....sandwich was good but atmosphere was not as "jovial" as we're used to in the U.S.

More interesting flora.

After a busy day in Daintree National Park, we decided to do a little "touristy" riverboat cruise to see some saltwater crocodiles.  (Since you probably don't want to walk up to the riverbank by yourself!!)

I had researched this before we left and had chosen a small, family run cruise (it's just an hour).  The other operations seemed like their boats were huge and could get trapped on the "inside" of the boat.  We did actually see another boat on the river during our cruise and I was correct - people sitting on the inside aisles were packed in close and didn't have a good view.    Our nice young guide - he gave us good info about what we were seeing the entire trip.

There is a 3 meter tide on the river - so the mangrove roots are exposed frequently.

We did see several crocs....

It was a nice relaxing time.

End of the day was at Daintree Riverview Lodge.  Neat place - just a nice hotel type room opening onto this lovely riverview deck....the kitchen is communal - and several folks made their dinner on the stove there.

 Lovely view of the river from our room!