Port Douglas by Mia

After we got off the ferry from Fitzroy Island, daddy rented a car and we drove to Port Douglas. The car was a little sedan so all the kids were squished in the backseat together! It was really squished and hot back there, even with the A/C on full blast. After the 45 min drive, we drove around some more looking for a place to stay. We went to like 10 different places and a few were closed, a few more were too expensive, and one was full of partying college students and was right next to a bar. We finally found an awesome Best Western and daddy told the lady there was four of us instead of six and got a cheap room that had enough beds for everyone except for Sarah (she slept on the couch cushions on the floor). We had to sneak around the whole time because there was only supposed to be two kids and that made it kind of fun. The room had a kitchen and everything so mommy made a really delicious dinner and we went swimming and watched TV until we went to bed (in beds!!!!).

The next day we went on a self-guided tour thingy of the area and the rainforest and stuff. There was a map that told you where to stop and a CD that had a narration with history and information. We went for a bunch of short walks on boardwalks through the forest and one to a swing bridge over a big river that was called a creek but I think it was too big to be one. The forest was full of trees (well, duh) and plants with giant leaves and lots of bugs. There were vines hanging down everywhere and the trees were all really straight and thin and tall so they could get to the sunlight as fast as possible. We saw a tree that looked like a bunch of vines that had melted together to make a big hollow tube with holes in it. That particular rainforest is the oldest in the world and it has plants that are so old that there have been fossils found of them! The rainforest is way different from all the forest I have ever been in.

On the way back to the hotel after the tour thing we went on a few more hikes and stopped at a café on the beach for some slushies. The beach was covered in holes with little balls of sand all around them. We had no idea what they were until I saw a sand colored crap scuttling around. It was really hard to see unless it was moving because it was really well camouflaged. The holes were little houses for the crabs and some were really big! It was quite cool. Then we went on a wildlife cruise on the river to see if we could see any crocodiles. We didn’t find any, but we saw lots of birds and a big lizard (which is almost a croc, but not quite). The guide was really cool though and he talked about all the crazy plants in the jungle. There is one that has little pickers all over its leaves that shoot neurotoxins into you and give you a really painful rash thing that last for like 6 months and nerve damage that last a year! It’s like the plants think the dinosaurs are going to come along and try to eat them or something!