Day 61 - A Goanna By Any Other Name

When I arrived in Australia and saw all the beautiful beaches I knew there was one thing I had to do before I left but up to this point the right opportunity had not presented itself.....until today.

I woke this morning before day break and walked down to the beach to watch the sunrise.  Although there were some clouds in the distance it was still spectacular (as most sunrise over the ocean are).....

After watching the beautiful sunrise I went back to bed for an hour or so :-) and then got up, made/ate breakfast, loaded up and hit the road.  My plan for the day was to drive back down the Cape Tribulation road through the Daintree and make my way to Trinity Beach just north of Cairns.

Before I left the Cape Tribulation area I drove to the parking area and walked down to the Cape Tribulation Beach (Images).  Cape Tribulation beach is a beautiful white sand beach and there is a short walk out to a point where you can look back at the horseshoe shaped beach.....

As I was walking back to my car I came across a couple of more of the Daintree"mascots" stretched out across the trail.....

As I said in a previous post, they are kind of "beautiful" in their own creepy way.  It's hard to believe these spiders are this big!  

About 5 miles down the road I stopped at a small store to get a drink.  I saw another sign warning travelers against swimming in the ocean and met some locals in another swimming hole across a field from the store.....

As I drove back down the Cape Tribulation road I decided to stop and checkout a little camping area just beside the beach.  When I got out of the car I began walking toward the camping area and I could see tents and camping equipment but there was no one around.  I walked down the small trail toward the beach when all of the sudden something "big" suddenly moved right beside the trail to my right.  In that instant I didn't see it but I sensed it was something "big" and low to the ground.  After all of the signs I had seen everywhere for the past 3 days I immediately thought it was a crocodile and I seriously thought I was in trouble.  As I jumped and ran I turned my head and saw that, while it was "big" and low to the ground, it was not a crocodile but a Goanna or monitor lizard (Goanna).  

After my heart rate slowed back below 200 (normal is 100) and I checked my shorts to make sure there wasn't anything I needed to "clean" ;-), I grabbed my phone and began snapping pictures and videos of this truly awesome creature.....it was sooo cool!  Unfortunately he didn't want to have anything to do with me so he climbed (like a squirrel) right up the closest tree and sat on a high limb and waited for me to leave....

I walked down to the beach to basically just kill some time hoping that he would come back down. After about 10 minutes I walked back to the campground and looked up the tree and found that he was gone.  So I started looking around for him and found him about 25' from the tree.  I really wanted to get a video of him but I needed to get closer so I slowly and carefully made my way toward him and fortunately this time he didn't run away......

And I managed to get the video I wanted.....I love the way they walk....(Note: the fence in the video was in the campground.  It was not between me and the lizard until the very end when he went under it).

After the video I said goodbye to my "friend" and made my way back to the car and continued south through several sugar cane fields (I had no idea they grew sugar cane here but later learned most sugar cane in Australia is grown in this area) and visited a couple of more beautiful, tropical beaches.....

I eventually made my way back to the ferry and crossed back over the Daintree river.....

As I rode the ferry I said a reluctant goodbye to the Daintree Rainforest.  It was a truly amazing 3 days and seriously one of the top highlights of this entire trip.  If you're ever in Australia I would highly recommend a trip to the Daintree!

After I crossed the river I drove a short distance north to visit the quaint town of Daintree Village (Google, Images) and stopped at a World War II bombing site (Web) before making my way to my Airbnb for the next two nights in Trinity Beach.

Trinity Beach (Google, Web, Images) is one of a few beach communities just north of Cairns. I stopped at my Airbnb, met my hosts (Paula & Andrew) and their two daughters, unloaded my stuff and headed out for a run to the beach.  Trinity Beach is a nice beach community with a few restaurants and hotels lining a beautiful beach lined with palm trees.  I arrived on the beach front just before sunset....

After spending a little time around the beach I had a nice run back to my room with the intentions of getting cleaned up and going back to the beach front for dinner.  When I returned to the house however my hosts were making dinner and insisted that I join them. So we had a very nice dinner on their patio and a very nice 3 hour conversation....and some fun playing ball with their dog Rosie...

Paula had grown up in Japan and he was from Australia.  She liked Australia but this area was a little "rural" for her as she was accustomed to being around larger cities in Japan.  Andrew is a police officer in Cairns and had some very interesting stories about some of the things they see like all of the people who actually drown around Cairns (mostly while snorkeling the reef), the flying fox "controversy" and that in over 20 years of being a policeman he had never encountered a criminal who had a gun! Very few people in AU have guns as they are strictly regulated. I have to say it was nice while in AU and NZ to watch the news and not have the first 8 minutes devoted to all of the shootings that occurred that day (like the US).

We finally called it a night around midnight.  It was another great day & evening and a very enjoyable conversation with some very nice people.

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