Billy Tea Safaris - Daintree Rainforest, Cape Tribulation & 4wd Bloomfield Track Day Tour - February 15

We had a 7:00 AM pickup by the guide and drove north along the magnificent scenic coastal route along the Captain Cook Highway learning about the history of the area and admiring spectacular views of the coast line and the Azure waters of the Coral Sea. He was much more informative than the driver yesterday. He even pointed out some fields with wild Wallabies in it.

 

Our first stop was at the majestic Daintree River for Morning Tea before boarding a boat for the guided River Cruise on the Daintree River. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife, but a couple very young Estuarine Crocodiles and some birds and lots of fruit bats. (there were tons of bats living in Cairns near the hotels as well. They were the huge Fruit Bats) It was scenic with mountains and rainforest all around with mangrove forests.

 rest stop

 ferry across the river

From there we made our way up over the Alexandra Range and stopped for a panoramic view of World Heritage, Wet Tropics, and Tropical Rainforest merging with the azure colors of the Coral Sea. Here we explored the rainforest with a guided walk on the elevated National Park Boardwalks. We saw a really cool lizard.

 the guide

We made our way towards Daintree, Cape Tribulation and stopped at Lync Haven which is an animal refuge center to hand feed the wallabies and explored the grounds while our guide cooked steaks on a BBQ and then we enjoyed a delicious gourmet barbecue lunch with freshly prepared salads in the beautiful rainforest setting.

 peeking out of the pouch

 guide showing the baby in the pouch

 the guide cooked the meats

birds at the center

the restaurant

After lunch, we drove past the famous Daintree Tea Plantation, past spectacular mountains and through spectacular World Heritage Rainforest as we passed Cape Tribulation and continued along the 4WD Bloomfield Track to pristine Emmagen Creek. It wasn’t a very adventurous ride since they have been way too dry for the rainy season and the road was dry. Billy Tea Safaris is the only tour operator that goes to this secret Jewel in the Rainforest, and now it is time for a refreshing rainforest stream swim, in crystal clear freshwaters and without the crowds of people. Here our guide set up for some Billy Tea and to taste about 8 kinds of fruit. What a fun stop! 

Traditional Billy Tea, made in a traditional Australian Billy which is really a slender & tall metal pot with  handles that he dipped into the creek to get water. (which despite being drinkable right from the creek, he boiled it for 10 minutes before making the tea). He said it is quite a ceremony to make the tea and he would show us the traditional way it was made. He opened the container and proceeded to take about 2 or 3 handfuls of tea leaves and throws it at the pot. He boiled it for a while and then told us all to step back as he needed some room for the next part. He proceeded to swing the pot around in a circle to get the tea leaves to settle to the bottom. Too funny! Anyway, the tea was very good!

 dessert

We then make our way to Cape Tribulation Beach after most of the crowds had gone and took the iconic photo of standing with one foot on the beach and the other on the rainforest, (kind of like at the equator where you can stand with one foot in each hemisphere) where the 'Rainforest meets the Reef'.

 one foot in the rainforest and one on the sand of the GBR

We stopped at Daintree’s hidden secret, the Daintree Ice Cream Factory. Here you got 4 unique flavors in a cup and we ate it in the vehicle as we continued on our way. (Black Sapote, Soursop, Wattle Seed, Jackfruit, and Coconut are common flavors they have) All the fruits used to make the ice cream have been locally grown on the property.

We crossed the Daintree River by cable ferry and began our drive back to Cairns. Pretty fun experience as well!

 we stopped at this lookout

Highly recommend this tour!

We didn’t get back until around 6:30 PM so we decided to go back to the Night Markets and eat Chinese Food at the same place…it was THAT good. We went back to the same Gelato place we had the first night as well. He gave us way too large of portions this time and I was ready to burst.

 Crystal Symphony was where we thought we were supposed to dock

We did some last minute shopping at the Night Markets and we stopped at Woolworth’s Grocery Store and a bottle shop for some wine to bring on board tomorrow. We got packed up to get up early to check out tomorrow morning and re-join our ship.