Exploring Nature was the theme of our trip today and when we all arrived at the car we discovered that Jenny and I had been promoted to pilot and co-pilot and the brothers had seated themselves in the back – heaven forbid this could be interesting because dear Jenny was still figuring out where we were going first! Anyway, a decision was made and off we travelled the rather short distance to Mossman Gorge where we boarded a shuttle to be taken to the start of the walking tracks on a pleasant 25 degree day. The gorge is simply beautiful ancient rainforest located in the southern section of the World Heritage listed Daintree National Park which covers a vast area of land in the far north of Queensland. It is the sacred land of the traditional Kuku Yalanji people. The walking trails are easy boardwalks and we decided on a 2.4 km circuit track beside the river where beautiful clear water flows strongly over enormous boulders – it is spectacular.

Then on to the Daintree Rainforest and Cultural Centre – a short drive, followed by a car ferry across the river and then a longer drive on the other side to get to the centre where you collect audio sets and set off. The lovely wide boardwalks take you in various directions and loops around parts of this expansive lush green and absolutely stunning rainforest – the oldest rainforest in the world and older than the Amazon rainforest. Trees tower above you, even when you are many feet off the ground on these raised boardwalks – the effect is simply stunning and the forest is home to many animals, snakes, birds, and a huge number of edible, and some very poisonous plants. Walking under this spectacular canopy of green is an experience to be had and what a perfect way to spend some time in this incredible environment.

Ice creams were on our minds – actually Jenny’s mind – and the journey back turned out to be an obsession around finding a real fruit gelato. She declared she had found just the shop – in Daintree Village so we drove for 30 minutes on winding roads with many roadworks taking place to get to Daintree – a bar, a takeaway, a park but no ice cream shop! A wrong turn had been taken so, with much hilarity, we set off back towards Port Douglas looking for ice cream signs – none! Finally, to our great relief we found the real Italian Gelato shop less than 1 km from our apartment back in Port Douglas – it was a long way to go for a gelato but the boys were very ‘appy!!

Over dinner watching the sunset we had a meeting about the plan for tomorrow and the meeting closed before a decision was made so we have no idea but we are in the hands of a very efficient sister-in-law (Camp Mother) who will have a plan by breakfast – you can bet on it and I have a feeling that the boys may be sent in one direction while the girls go in another! C’est la vie!

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