Daintree River
“Somebody save me!”
— Remy Zero
After witnessing the breathtaking scenery around Cape Tribulation, I thought that was going to be the highlight. Boy, was I wrong. I continued to be wrong about that assumption throughout my entire stay in Oz.
Pictured in the gallery is the Daintree Tea Company plantation. I managed to haul some of the local tea back to Canada for my tea fiends… err, I mean friends. They loved it!
We also stopped for homemade tropical ice cream made with macadamia nuts and fruits I’d never even heard of. WHAT A TREAT!!
Then it was time for the Daintree River cruise. This is saltwater crocodile country, so naturally I was ready for danger.
My pictures show the fear on my face. Our guide helpfully informed us that if the boat sank, reaching the riverbank with crocodiles around might become rather interesting. So, yes, the look of apprehension in those photographs is genuine.
I did manage to spot a few juvenile crocodiles sunbathing along the river. They may have been small, but after everything I’d learned about Australian crocodiles by this point, I wasn’t volunteering to go ashore and introduce myself.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a green tree frog jumped into the boat. Much to the delight of a little British girl, she immediately ran over and touched it. Our guide told her parents to have her wash her hands.
Australian green tree frogs produce defensive secretions through their skin, so washing your hands after handling one is a sensible precaution. It wasn’t quite the highly poisonous creature I believed it to be at the time — apparently Australia had finally produced an animal that wasn’t actively trying to kill me.
One of the last photographs in the series captures some great Aussie humour: a roadside warning about cassowaries. These huge, prehistoric-looking birds had already become one of the unexpected fascinations of my Australian trip.
I talk much more about the cassowary and its importance to Queensland’s tropical rainforests on my Billabong Sanctuary page.
