We woke up to the sound of rain pelting down on the roof of the van, so we didn’t bother waking up early like we had planed and going for a 2 hour hike but instead slept some more. At least the rain forest was living up to it’s name. We had booked a crocodile cruise up a river in the afternoon and luckily it had cleared up then. During the cruise we saw four crocodiles and about a thousand mangroves. The crocodiles were all asleep and could have been statues for all I know. The mangroves had little crabs living around their roots so it was cool to see the creatures scurrying around the tangled roots of the mangroves.

(A Croc and mangroves)

Then we had to drive back down to Cairns. Hendrik was to drive to the ferry which he did only smashing the side mirror into a tree causing it to crack, which we thought was job well done, and I was to take over from the ferry again. We switched seats while we were waiting for the ferry to come to our side after I had purchased bananas from local Aboriginals. We were the first in line for the ferry and when the man waved me to come forward I stalled, again and again getting more nervous every time. After a good long embarrassment I finally made it onto the ferry but we both decided that it was best if Hendrik drove the bus off the ferry since it was a steep incline off. It appeared like a game of musical chairs because once we were off the ferry I was supposed to drive again, which I did all the way back to Cairns, to pick up our teddy bear from the hotel.

One thing I still noticed was that I was incredibly land-sick or had a case of mal de debarquement or “sickness of disembarkation.” Ever since I had gotten off the Kangaroo Explorer I had to keep swaying to feel normal. Riding in the van was ok because I was in motion but sitting in the pub in Cairns that night I had the feeling I was going to fall off my chair. I was dizzy, and if I didn’t keep bobbing I probably would have. I looked into it some more on the internet at the campsite and the symptoms matched perfectly and what scared me the most was that said it could last years. At least it only lasted about two weeks, but it was incredibly uncomfortable and I’ll think twice about going on a boat overnight ever again.

We stopped by Port Douglas in the morning before heading up to Cape Tribulation. Port Douglas is a very cute town with a nice beach and a busy street for shopping. Definitely recommend spending time in Port Douglas rather than Cairns if you’re heading that way and not going SCUBA diving.

Then I had to try driving again since Hendrik was getting scared he’d have to drive the whole way. This time the road was wide and flat and it was a new day so I was less nervous and managed to drive the bus well on the road all the way to the ferry for the crossing to Cape Tribulation. We swapped seats on the ferry since the roads were going to be narrow and windy in Cape Tribulation. It was another scary drive through the northern jungle as we wound our way upwards. As we soon found out there wasn’t too much to do in Cape Tribulation if you don’t feel the need to do lots of hiking and don’t have money to spend on tourist traps such as the 80 dollar zip line through the canopy. Yeah it would be fun but worth it? Probably not.

We went on a few different boardwalks through the rainforest and along the beach. What makes Cape Tribulation such a natural wonder is that the rainforest comes right up to the beach like in movies set on tropical islands. As we walked along the beach heading back to our campsite after doing the mangrove boardwalk (I’ve seen enough mangroves on this trip to last me a lifetime) we saw a man dressed in only what looked like a red diaper. His hair was so wild I couldn’t see his face. We were some distance away because we didn’t want to get too close but this man was throwing sticks at the palm tree in hopes of knocking down a coconut as if he was recreating a scene from “Cast Away.” This was probably the highlight of Cape Tribulation.

Our Britz van compared with others.

Day 6. We went to pick up the van we had rented to start the road-tip part of our vacation. I was excited since I had never been on a proper road trip. We got the model of van with a shower and toilet because Hendrik wanted the luxury, if it was up to me, I would have gone for the basic model. We had to watch a DVD which showed us how to operate everything and I wanted to hold on to the DVD for the future, but we weren’t allowed.
Then we were brought to our new home for the next month. We were excited to see that it was a Britz, and not a backpacker campervan which meant we were upgraded to the newer model since the one we had ordered wasn’t available, but it was huge. It was the size of a small bus. We were both quite terrified of the look of the thing since neither of us had ever driven anything that size. We wondered whether we needed a special license but AU allows any tourist to drive a bus if they want, I guess. It was daunting. So we had a bus with the stick on the opposite side than we were used to and we had to drive on the wrong side of the road. At least we were well trained from Ireland to drive on the wrong side of the road. Hendrik had to drive it first because there was no way I was getting behind the wheel.
I was one terrified passenger though and gritted my teeth and tensed my muscles as Hendrik inched the vehicle out of the rental lot. He stalled quite a bit, and I was only glad we got the vehicle in a small quiet town and not Sydney. It was a hair-raising start to a vacation. We loaded our suitcases and then decided to drive to Kuranda a small tourist trap village in the mountains surrounded by a rainforest. We saw it on a lot of brochures and it was close to Cairns so we thought why not. We drove to the sky rail which is a gondola that takes you up to Kuranda but it was so expensive to ride we decided it wasn’t worth it.
Since Hendrik was determined not to drive the whole month he said I should try in the parking lot which I did. I stalled over and over again and ran over curbs that he soon took the wheel from me, which I didn’t mind since I was shaking.
We decided to drive to Kuranda instead, which was a really bad idea since the roads were windy and narrow and we were first timers driving a heavy bus. I clenched my muscles and held my breath on every turn, and when we finally got to Kuranda it was deserted. Everything was closed. Apparently all the tour buses from Cairns come there in the morning so by the afternoon the town shuts down so there was nothing to do. One last pie shop was opened and we asked the owner where the tourist train was since we had seen it on many brochures. “There’s no tourist train here, but a real one that goes to Cairns like you have in London or New York.” Right, except that it was designed for tourists and only went twice a day, but we thought it was hilarious that he compared Kuranda to New York and London. With nothing else to do we went on a rainforest boardwalk. It was nice and relaxing to be out of our bus.
Afterwards Hendrik decided I was going to drive again. To get out of the mountain top parking lot I had to go up a small hill on which I stalled, of course, and had a car behind me. I had trouble starting the engine and whenever it did start I would stall again so I panicked and Hendrik had to take over and my dread for driving the bus became worse.
We regretted going to Kuranda and decided to go into a nearest campsite and the nearest one was around port Douglas. At least after the descent from Kuranda the road became straighter but it was also dark. Once checked in we were both trembling and hating the bus, me especially since I didn’t want to drive it. Our first day on the road and we were already behind schedule because according to plan we were supposed to be in Cape Tribulation. To make things even worse we realized we left our stuffed bear, Walibi (not to be confused with an AU Wallaby) at the hotel in Cairns.