For my last day in Cairns, I had arranged a trip to the Daintree rainforest, which is located on the north east coast of Queensland. I was picked up in a 4x4 by my ranger, Mick, who was a very amusing guy, and then travelled with a lovely couple from Sicily who didn’t speak a word of English, and I didn’t speak a word of Sicilian! It was amazing, though, how we all managed to communicate during our time together by pointing to things and using our own devised sign language.
Throughout the trip, we were shown a multitude of native plants and learnt all about them. We also encountered some beautiful birds and took a trip down the Daintree River where we were lucky enough to see a couple of crocodiles.
We also visited the beautiful Cape Tribulation, which has fantastic views and breathtaking coastline. One of the highlights of our adventure, though, was undoubtedly a real bush tucker meal at a little restaurant in the middle of the rainforest, which was quite remarkable. We were given the opportunity to sample an array of edible and exotic fruits by the guy who ran it, and even kangaroo steaks were on the menu! I had some local fish, which was delicious. We sat outside looking out across the rainforest canopies and listening to the call of the birds.
Our trip was rounded off nicely by a visit to a local fruit farm, where all the exotic fruits could be found made into delicious ice creams - just what we needed to cool us all down in the heat of the day. We then encountered a huge grassland area of wild wallabies – so glad I declined the kangaroo steak!
The whole trip was a truly amazing experience and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we will all remember for the rest of our lives.
