Port Douglas: The Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest

We spent four fantastic days in "FNQ" (Far-North Queensland) enjoying beautiful, tropical Port Douglas and the surrounding areas. We enjoyed the area and our resort, which is the only resort on Four Mile Beach:

We spent a day in the Daintree Rainforest area doing two tours. First, an Aboriginal Dreamwalk through the Mossman Gogre rainforest with an indigenous guide was as fascinating as our previous such walk at Tower Hill. While there were similar themes in this walk, it was most interesting to learn about the differences between how the indigineous tribes lived based on the nature of their territory. We began the tour with a smoke ceremony, which is a method the indigineous people use to welcome strangers onto their land:

After we had all walked through the smoke, we headed into the rainforest, with our guide showing us several dangerous plants and poisonous fruits. In addition, he taught us about plants that are useful for medicinal purposes, including one whose leaves, mixed with water can be crushed to form a lather that is useful for sunburns, bugbites and as an insect repellent -- all very helpful in the rainforest. Toward the end of our walk, he showed us what he called his "identification and passport," body paint that would be used by an indigineous person when entering the land of another tribe:

Given the heat and humidity on our walk, I barely lasted one-and-a-half hours in the rainforest. I would never make it through the tribal initiation process where boys as young as 8-9 spend up to twelve months living there.

After our walk, and a surprisingly good Thai lunch in a small town, we took a leisurely one-hour cruise on the Daintree River. The main purpose of this cruise is to see the giant saltwater crocodiles, and we were not disappointed:

That is Lizzie, a relatively small female who measures only about 2 meters (about 6-and-a-half feet). She was swimming along and although our guide said she was certainly aware of us, she gave no indication that she cared we were there. Our guide had an amazing amount of knowledge about the crocodiles in the area although we were unable to find any of the other adults, he did spot a couple of juveniles, which were tough to see among the bush, and really looked like large lizards (sorry, we couldn't get a decent picture). We also saw some bird life including this Great White Heron, who flew by our boat and perched nearby:

All-in-all, it was a really nice day of learning different things about both the rainforest, and the river environment.

The best day of our stay, however, and one of the best days of our trip so far, was our snorkeling day on the Great Barrier Reef. Based on the advice of many people, we chose a small-boat tour, and they turned out to be right. Our tour had only twelve people and it took an hour and a half for the boat to get to an outer part of the reef. We were something like 25 miles from shore, so it was like snorkeling in the middle of nowhere, and we were the only boat there. In the water we were divided into two groups of 6, each accompanied by a guide (one a marine biologist, the other a zoologist) who really knew the reef and its inhabitants. Our guides (Sam and Jen) were super enthusiastic as they spotted particular fish and showed us things we might have otherwised missed. They really made this an unforgettable experience.

First, we found "Nemo" (you have to look closely as clownfish fish are very small, and they often try to hide from humans):

Actually, we found lots of Nemos and many of his cousins around the reef -- there are six types of clownfish there. What was most amazing about this snorkel trip was it was like snorkeling in an aquarium, there were just so many diverse corals and so many fish you didn't know where to look:

Shana had a great time exploring:

Overall, we snorkeled for almost two-and-a-half hours at two different locations on the reef. We only briefly saw a reef shark, and most of the largest fish stayed away, but it was an amazing day of snorkeling. On the way back, we stopped briefly near a beautiful island near Port Douglas just to get photos:

Now, we have moved on to another tropical location in Queensland -- Airlie Beach near the Whitsunday Islands -- for more adventures and relaxation.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana