AUSSIE ROAD TRIP (PART 5): The final part of our Australian adventure. October 2015.

Croc!…The Daintree National Park

It was another long day, but we arrived in Port Douglas by early evening, had just enough time to run to the grocery store, and had dinner at home. We planned on getting up early to get a jump start on our day, but naturally, we slept in. Our plan was to visit Daintree National Park. We received some information, and loads of pamphlets from the hotel owner and headed off. We decided to go on a crocodile cruise. We arrived about 20 minutes before they were leaving, so we wandered over to the boat and waited for our group to arrive. Turned out the group was Italian, and they were large. They had their own tour guide, who was quite loud. Good for the Italians, bad for the rest of us. Our driver was an older gentleman who looked pretty scruffy, but turned out to be a wealth of information and quite friendly. All of the non-Italian speaking tourists stood around him while he drove the boat and told us about the crocs as well as the rest of the flora and fauna in the rainforest. We saw crocs. They were big. They weren’t too active, but one was sitting there with his mouth open showing us his pearly whites. Our guide said that crocs open their mouths like that to either scare off people or to cool down. We learned a good deal about the crocs as well as about the Daintree rainforest. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and because of his age, had loads of stories to share. 

We were hungry

After our tour, we were hungry. We opted to take the ferry across the river and continue driving north through the Daintree. This car ferry was the most efficient ferry I’ve ever been on. They waste no time whatsoever. We loved it. Once on the other side, we made our way to a restaurant recommended by the lady selling the ferry tickets. Along the way, we passed by quite a few places and made mental notes to stop by on the way back. Our lunch recommendation turned out to be a restaurant/lodge. When we pulled up, we saw a man carrying a large snake out on the lawn where he gently set it down and watch it slither into a bush. When we walked up, I asked if it was a pet snake, or if it happened to wander into the kitchen. He said that the previous owner of the lodge was a snake enthusiast, but had them all in small enclosures. He didn’t like it, so he lets the snakes out for some fresh air every day for a couple hours. How nice.

From a distance

There were also beautiful birds outside of their cages, which on one hand was nice to see, but watching them climb up and down chairs and tables instead of flying, was kind of sad. They also have an area where they rehabilitate wallabies and kangaroos. Most of them are placed back into the wild, but the few who are unable to survive on their own, will live out their days at the lodge. We walked around and saw all of the snakes in the cages. It was pretty creepy. On the bright side, the lunch was quite good. 

Biodynamic Ice cream

We had originally planned on driving further north, but both of us decided to head back, and make stops along the way. Our first stop was a place called Floravilla ice cream. It’s a small place that was recommended by the owner of the hotel we were staying. They make biodynamic ice cream, all on site and have very unique flavors. Javier ordered the Daintree Rainforest, and I, the Spices of Life. Both were delicious. We decided to walk off some of our lunch by taking a nature walk around Dubiji Boardwalk in Cape Tribulation. It was a short walk, but very unique. We were really in the rainforest. I have never seen so many different trees in one place. Thankfully we only saw a few wild Turkeys, and nothing else. We were both hoping for a cassowary, but no such luck. We drove further south, crossed the ferry again, and made our way to Mossman Gorge.

The Daintree National Park

We opted to take the longer walk, which was really only about 2 hours. Again, the trees were so thick and varied. There were those long hanging branches that Tarzan would swing on, and many different sounds. Again, no cassowary, but also, no snakes or creepy crawly things. At one point, we could hear trees rubbing together. We stopped to look up, and noticed that one of the trees was leaning on another, and with every gust of wind, would move a little more toward the ground. There was a family of four behind us and they stopped too. The dad asked his little kids if they heard the trees, he then looked at us and asked the same. We said, yep, but all just stood there looking up. Finally, the dad said, “I think we should all get out of here.” We agreed and picked up the pace. 

The Daintree National Park

It was already dark when we returned to the hotel. We had an early pick-up the following morning, so it was early to bed.

The next morning we were up and ready for our snorkel adventure at the Great Barrier Reef. The shuttle bus picked us up on time, and the friendliest guy, Greg, drove us to the meeting place. After checking in, we were shuffled to our boat for the day. The boat was gorgeous. Big and new. As soon as we stepped on, we put our shoes in a basket, picked up a wetsuit, climbed upstairs where we received our mask and snorkel, and our final station, fins. It was so well organized and the crew was so friendly. Javier and I have done a few snorkel trips recently, one in Thailand and another in Indonesia. We had forgotten how different the experience is in a developed nation. They went over all of the safety information; we had no worries. Our captain was very professional, not a kid, or raggedy guy drinking and smoking. It makes a big difference in comfort. We were told it was going to be choppy, and were highly advised to take meds- which they sold on the boat if you needed. It sure was choppy. We were sitting in the back and a couple time we were slightly airborne. At other times he had to slow way down, and they all called out, “Hold on!” Ha!! At the end our captain said the waves were some of the worst he’d seen.

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Great Barrier Reef

We snorkeled at three different locations. The current was strong, and there were three lifeguards out there with us, as well as the captain keeping an eye out from the back of the boat. Swimming against the current was tiring, but floating back towards the boat was fun. The wetsuit kept us buoyant, and all we had to do was maneuver around the taller coral, while the scenery below swept by. It was brilliant. The colors, the coral, the fish. It was by far the greatest snorkel adventure we had been on. At one stop, the reef looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland and we both had songs from the Little Mermaid going through our heads.

Great Barrier Reef

We had a briefing before each snorkel where the crew would tells us where to go and where not to go. One of the crew said that this area looked staged. It was so incredible that it didn’t look natural. They said that one of the spots was a highlight for National Geographic. They had come for a few months to photograph the reef, and in the end, they returned back to this spot to spend even more time, and said that it is the best commercial spot they had been to in the world. I have only been snorkeling a few times in my life, and I don’t think I’ll ever see anything like this again…except for when I come back, of course. 🙂

At our last location, we did a guided snorkel, where we were separated into three groups and the crew swam down and picked up different animals for us to touch. It was cool, and they explained that all of the animals were not harmed by our touch, and the ones that would be, were left alone. We also had a marine biologist who gave us a “Reef Brief” and explained about the reef, the dangers the reef face, and what it means to us. She also answered all of our questions and was very informative. 

Great Barrier Reef

The day was really great. There was hot tea and coffee waiting for us every time we climbed out of the water, which was good since it was pretty chilly out. We didn’t have much sunlight, which meant that the colors weren’t as bright, but as our marine biologist said, sunlight isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes the sun illuminates everything including sand particles and plankton which disrupts visibility. She said that even though we didn’t have sunlight, we had excellent visibility…I’m not complaining. It was AMAZING. 

Great Barrier Reef

The whole thing was so professional and wonderful. On the way back to the shop, we were stopped by an Argentine couple who asked us about our experience. We ended up talking for so long that the store had closed. When we knocked on the door, Greg answered and remembered us by name! He said he looked for us to shuttle back to our hotel, and that he had already dropped everyone off, but would take us if we wanted. How nice!! Instead, we asked for a dinner recommendation and took a pleasant stroll back home. What a productive couple of days we had!

Unfortunately, we were back to more of the same. We had two days to drive 20 hours. 🙁 But I have to say, we made the best of it. 

We stayed again in Mackay. We decided to go back to the same place, and the girl remembered us. Apparently the room was significantly more expensive than our previous stay, but she went ahead and gave it to us for the previous price. How nice!

Brisbane

We arrived in Brisbane in the evening. The place we stayed was not good, but did the job. We had one full day in Brisbane, and only one item on our itinerary…unlock our pocket wifi. When we were in Perth, they told us that it was as simple as going into a Telstra store, paying the unlocking fee, getting the code, and *poof* you have an unlocked device! Let’s just say the whole process took us about 5 hours. No one knew what they were doing, in fact, they tried to help as little as possible. We were on the phone with Telstra while in the Telstra store, the people on the phone would tell us to have the workers in the store do something, and EVERY TIME we asked them, they would respond with, “They can do that over the phone” or “You can do it yourself online.” WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!!! Conversely, after dealing with this horrible company for hours, we went to Vodafone across the way to check if our device was in fact, unlocked. The workers there were so incredibly nice and helpful, and actually gave us a free SIM card to check. Of course, we had trouble on the Telstra side, so we had to go back and deal with rudeness both in the store and over the phone. When we finally made it back over to Vodafone, we were successful. We were so grateful to them, we were going to purchase data as a thank you. When the girl asked us when we were leaving, we told her, “Tomorrow.” She told us that it didn’t make sense to purchase data, and to not worry about the SIM, she was just happy that it finally worked for us. The difference between the two company representatives was incredible. Thankfully, we no longer have to deal with Telstra, and are looking forward to using Vodafone in Fiji. 

Bye Australia

By the time we left the mall, it was already getting dark. Javier had found a Peruvian place that was supposed to be for lunch, but because of our Telstra fiasco, ended up being our dinner option. We had to take the metro to get there, and when we did…it was closed, as in, for good. Javier was crushed. I was pretty bummed too. Anticipating Peruvian food all day, only to find out it wasn’t happening, was definitely a let-down. We were in a very busy part of town. There were restaurants everywhere, and the place was buzzing with people. We settled on a Greek place, and Javier confessed afterward that his meal was very good- probably better than the Peruvian food would have been. 🙂 And that concludes our time in Brisbane. Pretty pathetic, but successful all the same. Off to Fiji!

THE END.

To see more pictures of Australia, click HERE.