Cape Tribulation to Cairns

Saturday 10th September

I thought Crocodylus was absolutely wonderful. I had wanted to stay there twelve years ago when I visited Cairns with a friend, but she didn't like the idea. Now at last I have been able to do it!

The huts you stay in are almost tents, but with a wooden frame and a wooden floor. The roof and walls are canvas, and each one has a proper toilet, washbasins and shower.

The water is lovely and hot in the shower. The huts are set in the rainforest.

Ours was right on the forest edge, looking right into the forest, so the view from our verandah was lovely.

The kitchen makes lovely food, and the dining room and other public areas are just canvas roofs over huge wooden beams.

The only power points were in the public areas, so charging everything was hard. There was no phone signal of any sort, though there was wireless Internet, which was switched off at 9.30, to my great consternation!

When I could no longer use the Internet, I noticed an animal looking vaguely like a rat with long legs, but the size of a big cat, hopping about round the chairs. This was a bandicoot, the first I have ever seen. I was really excited, I thought it was a charming animal but sadly there is no picture, because Paul had gone on a night walk, taking my camera. Even more annoying, after I had gone to bed, a male cassowary and his two babies visited the dining area (the males raise the babies, while the females go off to seek an alternative husband). I have been longing to see a wild cassowary, but will have to content myself with the one I saw in Bird World in Kuranda.

The night was far from quiet, because there was a very short but very sharp shower of very heavy rain. It made an extremely loud noise on our tent roof, which woke us up. What was even louder was the screams of rage from all the birds in the trees surrounding us, who really objected to the sudden cold shower, and all screamed with temper until the water was turned off! Fortunately, the shower didn't last long, and after a lot of dark muttering and grumbling the birds finally dropped off to sleep again, and we were able to do the same.

After breakfast next morning, we went for a walk in the rainforest. The path is clearly marked with orange rope so you don't get lost, and it really makes you appreciate how easy it would be to get lost and even walk in circles. It all looks the same, and you can't see more than a few yards in any direction. I had hoped to see the cassowaries, but we weren't so lucky, we only saw some bush hens and heard some wild pigs snorting and snuffling. We walked for over an hour, then it was time to go. I was really sorry to leave, I would have loved to have stayed longer.

We returned to Cairns, where some of our fellow travellers were anxious to do a bungy jump. It looked absolutely awful, but they seemed to enjoy it.

Three of them also tried the jungle swing - they were winched up to tree top level (about 170 feet, in this case) in a prone position and then allowed to fall, so that they swung about like a pendulum. To me it looked just as awful as the bungy jump.

After that we came into the centre of Cairns to find where we were staying, and had time before our last supper together to have a brief walk round Cairns.