FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Curse Of The Corona

Beautiful flora everywhere

The next two days were allocated to the exploration the Daintree National Park north of the Daintree River. Our included walkabout tour was scheduled for tomorrow and so we had today to cover the rest! We had our breakfast right on 0730 so we could be on the Daintree River ferry crossing as early as possible. It was a hefty $31 for a return ticket!

It was a very tasty breakfast

Time for some homework. Studying a map of the National Park

Daintree River crossing

Our main aims today were to visit the Daintree Discovery Centre, Madja and Dubuji boardwalks, as well as to spot a cassowary. There were signs for "Cassowary crossings" everywhere, how could we miss?! However, first, we had to contend with the rain. This area is green and lush for a reason...good rainfall. We braved the showers and ventured out to the boardwalks of the Daintree Discovery Centre armed with our audioguides and venue-provided smelly umbrellas. Whilst the set up may seem aged at the beginning, it was actually highly informative and the kids enjoyed it. The Daintree Rainforest is the world's oldest tropical rainforest, estimated to be around 165 million years old and dating back from when the dinosaurs were still alive.

The view from Alexandra lookout, the Daintree River opening out to the Ocean

We love audioguides! Now wrapped in plastic to be covid-safe

Can you spot the bug?

The children LOVED the bug and animal displays

What?! A dinosaur named after Elliot?

Even better...a dinosaur named after an airline?!

Whoever named this dinosaur deserved a prize for awesomeness!

By the time we finished and arrived at the first boardwalk, the rain had cleared. We tried our best to be very quiet so as not to scare the cassowaries away but being quiet wasn't really our strong suit. We needn't have feared. There was a cassowary and baby waiting for us at the carpark and indeed crossing the road! They are very large and so we stayed well clear of them...

The very pretty fan palms

Boardwalks everywhere! Makes for an easy and pleasant walk

Cassowary x 2!

For a sense of scale...

Next on the agenda was food...we had a picnic hamper prepared. We stopped to have a peep at the gorgeous Cape Tribulation Beach and there happened to be picnic tables nearby. Beauty! After lunch comes dessert, we stopped at the Daintree Ice Cream Co for some handcrafted tropical fruit sorbet and gelato. The flavours for the day were coconut, mango, wattleseed and black sapote. The wattleseed had hints of coffee and the black sapote hints of chocolate. The latter probably would have tasted nicer if tasted on its own. By this stage, the humidity was getting to us and we decided to head back to the resort.

We shortly discovered upon reading the news that four local government areas (LGA) in Sydney had been ordered to go into lockdown by NSW health. Queensland had then decreed that anyone who has been in those four LGA since June 11 (!!) had to follow the NSW lockdown rules. Um...my workplace that I go to once a week is in there! Bugger. Many of the rules were confusing and Malcolm and I had a long discussion about how to approach it. In the end, we decided to do the right thing in terms of public health, cut our trip shot and head home. Fortunately, there was nothing that was not refundable. We managed to move our flight forward to the 27th of June at no extra charge. We informed the resort and they were very helpful in delivering our dinner (we had reservations at the resort restaurant) to our room.

We were glad we did the great barrier reef first! We would have been very disappointed if we did not get a chance to experience it. The last 4 days of our planned time in Queensland was a relaxing stay in Cairns. Whilst it was disappointing to have to cut a holiday short, Cairns could be easily revisited another time.

Curse you coronavirus!!!!