So, we travelled up, and found the famous Daintree. First stop, Daintree Village, a thriving mecca of shops (2), cafes (1, attached to the shop) and tourist information centers (funny, but the tourist information guy also looked remarkably similar to the waiter in the cafe and the guy who served us our ice creams in the store...).
We booked our Daintree River Cruise which came highly recommended by the multitasker waiter/ice cream seller extraordinaire. There were two cruises to choose from, leaving at the same time, for the same duration, along the same route, for the same cost. Confused, we chose the cruise with the smallest number of seats, hoping for a more personal experience - and we did get to know Tony and Kate really well, as we were the only passengers on our exclusive cruise!
We were pre-warned that if we had come for the crocodiles (what else was there to see?) then we may be disappointed as there was a flood last week (apparently it rains a lot there, I guess that's what happens in the rainforest) and all the crocodiles had been washed away. But, we did spot this little fella, about a year old, left behind on the bank. Well, actually the other cruise guy, 'The Crocodile Express' (I suppose the name generates a certain expectation) and his group of four sightseers spied him and helpfully called out to tell us over the watery ten metre gap between the boats.
After all our exciting messing around on the water, we headed over on the ferry to the forest. In fact, ferry is a bit of an overstatement for the floating raft which you drive onto to get across the Daintree River, you drive onto it, someone pulls the pulley, or maybe it is automatic, the raft moves along a rope, and you sail across the twenty metre ravine. All very simple and effective.
We thought Benny would like the insect museum. In fact, we all enjoyed the private collection, which a gentleman named Steve had collected in his life's work, from all his travels around the world. Steve has also discovered new species of insect and even named a beetle after his wife (not sure if he liked his wife or not...).
Here's a lovely big stick insect I made friends with. The rest of the family were too nervous to come near - Alex used a long zoom lens.
The Hercules moth, which we later discovered in the wild - well, in the gentleman's bathroom in the next campsite, and we all know that men's public conveniences are about as close to the wild as you can get whilst still being covered by a roof. Alex put his thumb in the glass to show the size of this beast.
And check out this guy. Look closely....closer....no, closer than that. He is the Gerania Bosci, aka 'The Bikini lady' insect.
And more flutterbys.
The next day a walk in the woods, all by myself. It was raining, and the rest of the Skinners weren't overly keen, so I was 'al la solitaire'. It was quiet, and rainy, and eerie, and a little bit scary, and I thought I might get lost without Alex's keen navigational skills...
...so, I came back to the beach pretty quick
Back to my two little monkey angels.
Love
Est xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment