Today we went on a kayaking tour.  We wanted to go sea kayaking, and the tour promised sea kayaking. Unfortunately the sea part of it was very brief but we did spend a lot of time going through, under and around mangroves. I think mangroves are cool but I think there is a maximum amount of mangroves that a single person should see in their lifetime and I definitely OD’ed. In between the mangroves in the taller trees there were hordes of bats so many of them that they turned the tops of the trees black as they all slept upside down. The guide started to make noise by clapping and bashing his oar on the kayak, so we all did it and the bats would wake up and squeal and start flying around in a panic. Yes, it was a bit cruel waking the creatures up in the middle of their night, but it was really impressive.

Stockton Beach

The following day we drove down to Port Stephens home of Stockton Beach which has sand dunes that stretch almost to Newcastle. The campsite we stayed at was right next to the beach and this is the first campsite where we saw lots of permanent residences where a shed was attached at the side to the door of a trailer. So it was a bit depressing for to see and since we were practically the only motor home there we felt very out of place. We went for a walk on the beach and saw the most spectacular sun set. I had booked a tour of the beach for the next morning, and since the rain started that night I was scared that it would be cancelled which made me sad since this was one of the things I was looking forward to from the start of the trip.

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.