In the Daintree Rainforest and at Cape Tribulation

Driving North from Cairns (and taking the ferry across the Daintree River) gets you into the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest rainforest in the world.

It does look like one is in the middle of the movie "Jurassic Park" - just without the dinosaurs. A really lush tropical rainforest.



At the Daintree Discovery Center we climbed up onto the 25 m high observation deck which gave us a great 360 degree view of the different levels of vegetation of the tropical rainforest.



Further on we passed beaches with barely a soul on them.



Until we reached Cape Tribulation, which is where the paved road terminates. Most names of the significant natural landmarks along this coast have been named by Captain Cook and his men. Somehow, one gets a sense that they did not really enjoy this part of their trip in 1770. Close by, for example, they named Mount Sorrow and Mount Misery.

As mentioned, the paved road ends at Cape Tribulation. If one wants to drive further North, up the Cape York peninsula, then it's highly advisable to have a 4 wheel-drive vehicle, because the road looks like this (and probably much worse further North):



The few vehicles that we saw that did seem to have come through this track looked liked it:



Well, we therefore saved this trip up for next time...

Instead, we drove back down the coast, including another trip with the ferry across the Daintree River:



..and finally got back to Clifton Beach, near Cairns, when it was dark.