Cairns north to Port Douglas, Daintree and Cape Tribulation
Thala Beach Resort
Joe Bill don't climb the coconut tree!
Port Douglas Beach
Bulls, Kangaroos & Sandy
Well, we sure have packed a lot into our day today. It started with Sandy & Joe Bill spending the morning at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park while Murray & I sat having coffee & pancakes while reading the paper on the ocean front at Trinity Beach. Joe Bill, shy & retiring as he is, told us he was dragged kicked and screaming to join in with the aboriginal dancers in a traditional male dance (corroboree). However, anyone who really knows Joe Bill would agree he probably paid them to call him up! The photos should reach the blog by tomorrow...watch this space.
After they finished with the Australian indigenous people, they were ready for lunch, so we made our way 45 miles (40 minutes) north from Cairns to Port Douglas. We made a quick stop to check out the highly recommended view at the Thala Beach resort before reaching Port Douglas by 1pm. Can you believe that Joe Bill's 'boy' Bill Clinton & his wife Hillary chose Port Douglas as the only vacation stop on their 1996 historic visit to Australia. They were there again, dining at the Salsa restaurant (that we would have eaten at except they had no airconditioning and it was so hot) , when he was advised of the 9/11 attacks. He subsequently returned to the United States the following day. It's not hard to work out why he singled out Port Douglas - it really is a lovely location.
Lunch finished, we were back in the car and decided to continue north to the World Heritage Listed Tropical Daintree Rainforest, the largest continuous area of rainforest in Australia. At over 135 million years old, it is the oldest rainforest in the world. It has 13 species of birds that are found nowhere else in the world. Sadly just out of Daintree we took a ferry over the flooded Daintree River hoping to continue north to Cape Tribulation, only to hear that a 5 year old boy had been taken by a crocodile there this morning. His family ran a business on the river, and the boy had been walking with his 7 year old brother and his dog. Apparently the dog entered the flood waters and the boy went in after him and disappeared. His brother saw a large crocodile where his brother disappeared. As we crossed in the ferry we could see the emergency workers continuing their search along the river. Truly a sad and sobering sight. This is our last night in Cairns as tomorrow we fly to Sydney.
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