This next chapter of my Australian adventure is way up north in what is believed to be the oldest continuously surviving rainforest in the world, the Daintree. How the heck do they even know that? Apparently, because they found a type of plant here, Idiospermum, in 1971, that was previously thought to have been extinct. Before that all we had were fossils. Anyway, It was not a long drive at all from Innisfail up here, so I broke up my drive to stop on the Daintree River and do some croc hunting.

More specifically, this is the lower part of the Daintree River. The cruise was just a little over an hour, but we saw six crocodiles. Awesome!

This little guy below is only three years old. Only a small percentage of crocodiles survive to adulthood, but if they can make it to three then that usually means they’ll be fine. Hopefully this guy has a long life ahead of him.

Then there’s the opposite side of the spectrum, Scarface. He’s around eighty years old, give or take, and he’s the undisputed boss in this part of the river. He has a lot of girlfriends, but we found him today with his favorite. Apparently he spends most of his time with her and she chases the other girls away if they get too close.

We also saw a few birds. The Rufous Night Heron is supposedly never seen around here. He was shy and I just barely managed a pic before he hid in the trees. The egrets were kind of all over.

Scooter has two babies hidden somewhere, but we didn’t see them. She’s obviously keeping watch though.

The only way to get to Cape Tribulation is to cross the car ferry over the Daintree River. It’s a very short five minute ride and then I was on my way. There was a lot of damage and roadwork going on from another cyclone that hit here about two years ago. Cape Tribulation isn’t really a town, there’s just a few hotels, a few campgrounds, and a couple of restaurants. And this whole area is within Daintree National Park.

One of the best things to do on these jungle trips is the night walks. I did one every night except the night I arrived. The first one was guided by a guy from the hotel I stayed at. There aren’t a lot of big animals to see here, but I saw and learned a lot more than I thought I would. The stick bug above and the sleeping butterfly were the first finds. I didn’t even know butterflies slept at all.

At one point the guide shined his flashlight up through this big spiderweb revealing hundreds of babies. A giant spider nursery.

The guide was also really, I mean VERY passionate about fungi. We saw some pretty cool bioluminescent mushrooms that were way too small for pictures. We also saw a tree that was glowing because of the fungi covering the trunk. It was really cool to see. The best, though, were the bioluminescent scorpions. I only managed to get one slightly blurry pic, but I’m kind of proud of this one because they were very shy and very quick.

In the creek we found some fish and this eel hunting them.

What rainforest walk would be complete without some frogs? We spotted two white lipped tree frogs and one green eyed tree frog. In the first pic below the frog is kind of hiding in the leaves. You have to look hard, but he’s there dead center, I promise.

Below is a cane toad. They were introduced to Australia in 1935 to get rid of the cane beetles that destroy sugar cane, a major crop here. Unfortunately, that had disastrous consequences for the local ecology and the cane beetles are still thriving anyway. Haha! They’ve been trying to eradicate the toads ever since. This guy doesn’t seem worried.

The two best and most surprising finds of the evening were this striped possum eating high up in the tree and the tree snake that the guide randomly spotted while he was waxing poetic about the fantastic world of fungi.

During the day I went walking around the same area on my own. I didn’t see any animals, but this mangrove forest is really beautiful. The warning signs about crocs are a bit ominous, but according to last night’s guide, it’s easy, just don’t go near any water, including the ocean. See? Easy! These signs remind me of the “Be Bear Aware” signs at home.

I did eventually come out onto Myall Beach and walked about a mile or so to the actual Cape Tribulation. It was named that by Captain James Cook when he sank his famous ship, the Endeavor, here in 1770 (not on purpose). I have to admit when I had to walk through that little creek running down the beach I was a little nervous. Good thing the water was clear and not very deep.

At the end of the beach I had to turn back into the jungle to get to the other side of the cape. There I went to a nice viewpoint overlooking Cape Tribulation Beach and then walked a little ways down that one as well. I was lucky enough to spot one of the tiny little crabs before heading back. Their little holes in the sand are everywhere.

I relaxed at the hotel for a bit then went to dinner and prepared for my second night walk. I went with a different outfit in a different part of the jungle hoping to maximize my sightings. We saw a lot of huntsman spiders on this walk. I was introduced to these guys in Carnarvon Gorge when I discovered a large one was hanging out in my tent with me. After some panicked internet research I learned that they’re big and look absolutely ferocious, but thankfully, they’re harmless to humans. Now we’re friends… kinda.

Next we barged in on a pair of stick bugs in an intimate moment. They were… uhhh… you know… doin’ it.

I didn’t see as much this second night as I did the night before, but at least the frogs were out. The guide said this common mist frog was not so common. They’re rarely seen. The only reason we found him is because he was making so much noise trying to find a mate. Love is definitely in the air tonight in this part of the jungle.

Finally, we saw two green eyed tree frogs. The first pic is a male and the second is the female hiding behind a rock.

My original plan was to continue north from Cape Tribulation and circle around to the west, but the road from here is four wheel drive only. So the only way out of here is to go back the way I came and take the car ferry across the river again. This time I stopped at some of the viewpoints though. The jungle gets all of the attention, but the beaches are amazing too.

I had so much fun croc hunting on the way in that I decided to do it on the way out too. This time, however, I did a cruise on the upper part of the Daintree River about five or six miles further up. This cruise was just as prolific as the last one. Yay!

This guy was another young one that will probably survive just fine at this point. The guide didn’t know how old he was, but he’s slightly bigger than the three year old down stream.

It was a very exciting moment getting to catch this guy swimming down river. Usually they’re just kind of laying there so any movement is exciting. It was amazing how fast he could move with so little effort.

Another exciting moment was when the guide spotted this tree snake. I think it’s incredible that he was able to spot it near the shore from a boat. I also think it’s incredible that I was able to get a decent photo from the boat too. A lucky shot!

After my cruise it was back on the road to my next stop. But wait! There’s more! There’s a croc viewing platform on the bridge over the Mowbray River. I thought I’d stop and take a chance and sure enough, there were two crocs out there. They’re both in the pic below, but good luck finding them. Super zoom lens to the rescue!

The second croc was in the water and submerged before I could get the zoom out. I waited a while, but he didn’t come back up. Oh well!

After that I continued on my way and NOW we’ve reached the end of this post. Believe it or not, I only have two more stops and one more week to go on this Australian adventure. I’m almost done, but not quite yet, so stay tuned…