Last OZ post - Cape Trib and Cairns

We drove north until we hit the end of the highway, then crossed a crocodile infested river (see above) on a ferry and drove another hour going about 25 kph along a very curvy road to get to Cape Tribulation - the most northern "town" on the east coast that you can drive to unless you have 4 wheel drive and plan on packing your own fuel. Cape Trib is in the Daintree Rainforest (a World Heritage Site) and it rained most of the time we were there. They get 8-9 meters of rain a year in some areas of the Daintree. To give you perspective, Columbus gets ~38 inches a year, Corvallis, Oregon ~42 inches. 8 meters is 315 inches! Yikes. I had high hopes for our accommodations as we were staying at the "Cape Trib Beachhouse and Resort." In reality it was little more than glorified camping but it was beautiful. Our "beach house":

Just a few steps away from this:

The Daintree is home to the endangered cassowary. Very strange birds that I'm not sure I want to meet in the wild but still we were always on the lookout. We (adults) went on a night hike and came across fresh cassowary droppings but no birds. We did see plenty of these:

Huntsman spiders. Go ahead and google search both cassowary and huntsman spiders and you'll see why I wasn't really sleeping well at night. As close as we got to a cassowary in the Daintree:

We visited the Rainforest Discovery Center and climbed a few stories worth of stairs to get out of the forest for a good look around.

We also met up with researchers from James Cook University who operate a canopy crane. Think large construction crane in the middle of the forest. We went up 43 meters in the bucket and then swung around a full 360 degrees while swooping in and out and up and down along the 55 meter crane jig to get up close and friendly with the trees. Did I mention there was an osprey nest at the end of the jig? I was in heaven. Pretty close I guess. Me and my sis at the top of the canopy: 

I didn't get any great shots of the crane so I snagged one from the web:

Our final stop in Australia was Cairns where we spent loads of Australian currency on cheap souvenirs and gelato.

We also visited the greatest city pool complete with sandy beach, fountains, and awesome ocean views.

Then, it was over! And we were back in an airport dreading the coming 30 hours of travel (which really wasn't all that bad).

The End... to be continued 2013.