Cape Tribulation

After getting back from Cooktown we got chatting to a couple from Melbourne who were killing some time waiting for a bus to take them back to their accommodation. We offered them a lift and a short sightseeing tour along part of the Bloomfield Track. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours with Tibby and Esther who kindly bought us a coffee when we got back to their accommodation. Thanks guys.

Tibby and Esther at Cape Tribulation

When we were camping at the Lions Den, four lads who had just returned from a trip to the top of Cape York talked us into a game of pool one evening. Beware these guys are Pool Sharks!

The Blue Mountain Pool Sharks (Don't they look innocent?)

They even suggested that Queensland had different rules! We left them at the Lions Den but bumped into them again on our campsite at Cape Trib. They talked me into going out to the reef with them the next day and later in the evening we joined them for a Quiz night at a local bar. We didn't quite finish in last place.

We enjoyed your company guys and thanks for writing the postcard! The reef up here is much better than the one at the Whitsundays with a good variety of fish but the coral wasn't so colourful as the one we saw at Fitzroy. Ningaloo still has the edge I think. We went to the Mackay Reef, which is a sand cay just 19kms offshore so the journey is quite short. The water was a nice 26deg so you could spend plenty of time in the water.

At the campsite office there was a beautiful baby Amethyst Python making its way up the handrail. These creatures grow up to several metres long, I wonder where dad was?

Young Amethyst Python

We also had a spider using our caravan as a restaurant; we spotted it catching flies and moths that were attracted to the outside light. I think it was a harmless Huntsman spider. You can see how big it is compared to the fly its about to pounce on.

Huntsman Spider.

When we leave Cape Trib we will be travelling west away from the coast so we got up (very) early to see the sun rise over the Coral Sea. It was very colourful and we wondered why we hadn't done it before.

Sunrise over the Coral Sea

Even the palms took on a different colour.

Sunrise on Cape Tribulation Beach