plenty of danger and a bit of luck too!

So our next destination was Darwin, thankfully by air. We booked a "rainy room" deal at a nice hotel on the seafront, if the weather wasn't going to be great I at least wanted free shampoo and conditioner. The weather turned out to be great in fact and we enjoyed the city more for it. We did experience a thunderstorm and monsoon rains but with the temperature still around 30 it was just like a hot shower. The rain settled quickly in time for us to swim in the local lake(like swimming in a hot bath)and to fit another barbie in, perfect.
Darwin hosts a fantastic museum which was absolutely packed full of dangerous things native to Oz. We knew the snakes, spiders, sharks, crocs and jelly fish were scary enough but here you even have to suspect certain trees(they sting you), fruit(poisons you) and little things like caterpillars(venomous)- great! The most impressive museum find was "Sweetheart". 5m and >700kg later we learnt a little more about this stuffed croc which was killed when locals tried to rescue him from a local river in the 1970's. Just what we needed to see to relax us for our planned trip to the Adelaide river the following day!
At the river our guide suggested we were "lucky" when we boarded the boat(small) and a croc of a similar dimension to Sweetheart(huge) was already waiting for us by the boat. It was massive! We saw many more, of a "normal" size- a wee 3-4m! The crocs circled the boat but thankfully no limbs were lost as they took to jumping from the water, up to surprising 2m! We also got up close and personal with Neil, a Diamond python. This time I was pleasantly surprised to know pythons don't have venom but hey, they just constrict you to death! Mark seemed to enjoy Neil caressing his neck, I wasn't going there.
We also got to see an amazing national park called Litchfield, not too far from Darwin. We enjoyed some croc free swimming in the natural swimming holes and waterfalls, now this is what I call lucky.

From Darwin we flew to Cairns and headed straight up into northern Queensland to Port Douglas. This was a great base to explore the wet tropical rain forests and the Atherton Tablelands. This region is absolutely beautiful, there are volcanic craters where we swam, more waterfalls, creeks, gorges, amazing wildlife, forests and not to mention the fantastic beach at Port Douglas- no swimming here though thanks to the stinger season(aka the deadly box jelly fish). We loved Port Douglas and felt pretty relaxed and ready for more R+R as we headed further north to Cape Tribulation. Our expectations were now very high and they were definitely beat by the beauty here. It's where the rain forest meets the Great Barrier Reef and home to really rare, mainly endangered, wildlife and forests. We stayed in a forest hideaway with our own resident bathroom snake! I'd actually seen a brown tubular thing up in the rafters but just thought it was a pipe or something. Mark, being more snake experienced, later announced his find to me and the owner- I was pleased to hear that it was "just a tree snake"(not that pleased when it had disappeared and it was time for bed though!).
Danger was everywhere in Cape Trib. Mark, now known as Mark "Attenborough" Forshaw got the gold star when he spotted an Amethyst python on our night jungle walk(we must be mad!). The guide was very impressed, all I spotted all night were a few centipedes and a moth, spiders too but only after their webs attached to my face.

The danger didn't stop there. The following day we fancied a nice tranquil stroll along the beach but no-here we go again! It seemed Mr Croc, Mr Shark and Mr giant Lizard also wanted a piece of our tranquility and beach, they just couldn't leave us to it! We sacrificed the tranquility pretty sharpish and left some Japanese tourists to it!
We did actually come closer to death than this- "no!", I hear you scream. Whilst walking through the forest, now in daylight, we heard and saw a huge tree fall just short of where we were again enjoying a tranquil stroll! It definitely would have crushed us. We hold a Spanish tourist(a real Manuel character) responsible for this near death experience. We'd met him whilst trekking through the forest and thought he was a bit odd when he took to picking up fruit from the forest floor and suggested his girlfriend try it. When we were fortunate enough to spot a very rare Cassawary(only 1000 in Oz remain) he labelled it as a just a "big bird"- sure you're geting the picture. We got to the creek(after passing the "beware crocs" sign)and obviously gave him the privilege of getting wet first only to be alarmed to hear him screaming- not a scream of pain but his Tarzan impression! Well, I think his girlfriend was impressed, we were certainly not and quickly left him, Jane and the crocs to it and headed off back through the forest. He must of continued his party piece, shaking the poor trees to the ground.

So we've left the Cape Trib danger behind, our final memory being a sighting of a family of Cassowaries with their 2 chicks-no danger just luck again!

We hope our luck will continue tomorrow when we head for the reef and a bit more danger!