Cape Trib cont. (4th Sept)

Named Cape Tribulation by Captain Cook when his ship ran aground: "I name this point Cape Tribulation, because here began all my troubles." Luckily for me it's tribulation free!

It's scattered houses and accommodations only in the midst of the national park, I stay in a dorm bungalow from where it's only a few hundred metres walk through forest to suddenly emerge on the sand. I see my first Bandicoots- another strange Australian marsupial (admittedly not entirely like a supersized bouncing rat) and am vaguely disturbed during the night be the sound of Creatures. Already missing the sunsets I drag myself up to see the sun-rise instead. Then I do something I've wanted to do for sometime: canter along the sand on horseback- great fun and luckily my sparse riding knowledge returns after a 4 year gap from the saddle in time to keep me in the saddle!

The Great Dividing Range, which runs the entire length of the East Coast Queensland- New South Wales before becoming the Alpine area in Victoria, gets closer and closer to the coast the further North you travel until here the slope of the mountains gives way straight to the sea "rainforest to reef" as the tour companies like to brag. It is beautiful here though, rainforest species give way to mangroves in tidal areas, it's the haunt of the elusive cassowary and I glimpsed 2 more through the forest on a walk later on.

Heading back South I make a few more stops and spend a bit of time relaxing on the beach. Then it's time to follow Captain Cook back into Cairns watching the mountains become wreathed in cloud one minute and sunshine the next.