Wednesday activities:
started day with Bob Morrison of Australian Luxury Tours on a day trip to the Daintree National Park and Daintree River and Cape Tribulation.

Saw wallabies on way up north out in a field eating. Also saw white cockatiels, other birds, Ulysses butterflies, lizards, and a dog named Mambo.

Our tour guide picked up another couple Colin and Geraldine from Silky Oaks, this luxury resort out in the middle of no where and we were on our way. Headed north to Thornton each. But first we stopped at the Daintree River and took a cruise on the river with our guide Bruce. It was just the four of us and Bruce and his sidekick. The boat was like a barge. Saw lots of egrets and one croc sunning herself on the bank. Bruce was very knowledgeable and after cruising for an hour we met up with Bob again and continued north.

After driving for a short while, we stopped at Thornton Beach for breakfast which consisted of muffins/coffee/tea and fresh pineapple. At a nice roadside table complete with a cloth tablecloth.

During the course of the day we drove through Daintree National Park and made several stops along the way and did walking tours through the rain forest. They haven't had rain for several months so everything was very dry. We were in search of the Cassowary bird all day but never saw any. They are endangered and the size of an emu.

Bob identified and pointed out various plants/insects/bird/butterflies plus the age of some of the plants - mind boggling. This park is part of the World Heritage Organization (UNESCO) supported by the United Nations to preserve areas that might otherwise be destroyed. Then we headed north to Cape Tribulation.

This is the area where Captain Cook first set foot on australian soil. We were in a 4 WD vehicle now on a very rough road. This is actually where the rain forest touches the ocean and where the Daintree River feeds into the ocean. Beautiful wide sandy beaches but no one swimming because it is stinger season. Lots of backpackers - mostly young kids - in Daintree staying in places like hostels. This area reminds me of the north part of Kauai and the hippie look that the community has to it. Sometime in here we had lunch.

We drove to someone's property that had an entomological museaum - that is right - insects and butterflies. These people have an unbelieveable collection of both from all over the world in display cases. The Butterflies were beautiful. the insects were kreepy.

They have a picnic area made for visitors to the museum and this was our lunch spot. At each meal we had a tablecloth on the table and china plates and silverware and glasses to drink from. Beautiful setting in a shaded area overlooking a creek filled with fish and turtles while the birds and butterflies were overhead.

Meal consisted of homemade baked chickn, yummy bread, 4 or 5 kinds of salads and fresh and Pub Slush (lemonade) to drink. This was wehre we met Mambo the family dog. he is truly leading a charmed likfe at this plae.

A few more rain forest walks and we stopped for ice cream at the Daintree Ice Cream place. I had four scoops of ice cream - acacia nut, jack fruit, macadamia nut and one other kind i cannot remember from a fruit close to a persimmon.

Mid afternoon at this time we headed back to drop Colin and Geraldine off at Silky oaks and we arived back to trinty beach at 6 PM. This was the beat of our three tours because we had our very own personalzied tour guide for almost 12 hours.

Interesting note about colin and geraldine - london folks - she works for travelocity. Don't know his occupation but he loves going to thailand to fish at Phi Phi island and owns a boat there.

thats's it for now. this is thanksgiving day for us - not you yet - we are 16 hours ahead of you.

headed off for sydney in a few hours. our time at Trinity Beach has been magical.