I was awoken this morning at 5.30 (early, but not as early as Saboohi had planned –she was going to wake me up at midnight!!) with balloons, cards, presents, a big cake with lighted candles on it and champagne. Even though we are touring, far away from home Saboohi was not going to let the day go by without the usual celebrations! She had got the hotel management to source a cake for her (even though there are no cake shops here in Cairns!) and passed a card around the entire touring group (44 people) to get them to sign it. It was a lovely surprise.
My birthday present from Saboohi was a beautiful pearl necklace that she had purchased in Singapore, along with a fabulous body warmer that we had found at our resort at Ayres Rock (Outback Pioneer). I had cards from home to open too –what a journey they have had to get here!
We spent the day on a tour of Cape Tribulation which is unique for its beautiful beaches and for the fact that it marks the meeting of two world heritage sites; the Great Barrier Reef and the pristine tropical rainforests of Northern Queensland. We stopped at one of the beaches which was torture for Saboohi because the waters were blue and the sand white but we weren’t allowed to swim because there are salt water crocodiles in the sea! On the beach we saw an intricate maze of little holes with thousands of tiny balls of sand surrounding them. It covered a large area and we couldn’t make out what it was at first. After waiting and watching for a few minutes we saw the tiniest of little crabs emerge from the holes and when they sensed danger they curled up into a little ball and looked exactly like the balls of sand. We deduced from this observation that the little crabs were creating this elaborate structure as some sort of defence mechanism – truly ingenious!
The highlight of the day was a boat trip down the Daintree River to see the crocodiles. It reminded me of scenes from “The African Queen” as the rainforest bordered the edges of both sides of the river. Apparently the river was named by Captain James Cook after a friend of his back in England – the guide explained to us that the expeditions undertaken by explorers of that time would usually be funded by monarchs, wealthy business people, aristocrats and friends and in return they wanted newly discovered places to be named after them. So many places in this continent are named after British aristocrats who never actually came here.
Later in the day we visited the Daintree Discovery Centre where we took a boardwalk up through the rainforest and into the canopy so that we could view the forest from the very top. It was very beautiful. This rainforest is believed to be one of the oldest on the planet, hence its world heritage status. We arrived back at our hotel in Cairns at about 7.00 pm (Hotel Cairns) and then went out for some supper. A lovely day!
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