Out of my point of view: North Queensland

Second day in Paradise we decided to go have a look at Cape Tribulation, the Daintree rainforest and Mossman Gorge. Andrea and I were thankful we had chosen the air conditioned bus tour for the second day and not the boat to the Barrier Reef... we were feeling a bit delicate after having consumed way too much wine the night before. Some things just seem like such a great idea at the time.

Anyway, we started at Cape Tribulation. The cape was named such back in 1770 when James Cook's ship hit a reef and nearly sunk. Cook, not having a great day, wrote in his log that he named it "Cape Tribulation because here began all our troubles".

It is a beautiful spot with a white beach, palm trees, and a lookout with a lovely view of the beach and cape, and some mangroves beneath. We were actually incredibly lucky to spot a couple of small sharks (a meter or so long) swimming right beneath us in the shallows amongst the mangroves. It was really cool to see them, unfortunately they were only brief visitors and I didn't have time to get my camera out before they swam off.

And while we are on the subject of North Queensland beaches, I have to mention the signs and the vinegar. All beaches have signs warning you about marine stingers and crocodiles (yes, they do come to the beaches too) and there is always a bottle of vinegar available to treat jellyfish stings. Not comforting.

From the cape we went on to the Daintree rainforest and river. We got a guided tour of the Daintree rainforest discovery centre. They have a walkway through the forest where you can see all the weird and wonderful rainforest stuff up close and learn how and why things are. My favourites are the strangler fig trees. Google it.

On the river we saw a crocodile in the wild! A small baby one, but still.

Lunch was served in a hut in the middle of the rainforest - BBQ of course. Noteworthy is the giant spider that resided in the bathroom. Andrea is not a fan of the arachnids and refused to share the facilities with him. I on the other hand decided to risk it. The spider was really huge and only inches away from the toilet on which I perched, but he seemed reasonable so we agreed to both mind our own business and we got along quite well. I think he was a brown Huntsman - a harmless but unnecessarily large spider.

On the way home we stopped by Mossman gorge and had a look at the creek. Nothing special really in comparison, but a pretty place none the less.