Zoo Day 2

On our second day staying at the zoo, we found ourselves with time to kill.  Having explored all regions south and west, and with the northern regions yet to come, we felt like we were in a bit of a stall pattern.  

I dug through my folder of material that I had printed at home and found a random tidbit that mentioned a croc-free swimming hole that was accessible if we could find out about Gus and Bobbie somehow in Daintree Village.  That's really all we knew.

So we drove nearby, had lunch (Barramundi, of course) with a plate full of tropical fruit the likes of which we had never seen in our lives, found a store that had an information sign, and I asked the lady about Gus and Bobbie.

 "Oh, sure!" she said.  She gave us directions to a nearby cattle ranch where the owners' (Gus and Bobbie) property backed up to the Daintree national forest.  If we walked down a 'clearly marked' path through the jungle for about 2.5 km, we would find a croc-free swimming hole.

Sounded perfect! So, off we went.  We left money in the nice folks' mailbox and began our hike.  And it started raining.  And let me just tell ya, when it rains there, it POURS!!  Something about the rainforest...tricky!!!
We were drenched pretty quickly, but it was hot enough outside that no one was complaining. Over the river and through the woods we went.  Literally.  Until the path disappeared. And we were surrounded by mosquitos, again, and we all looked at each other and realized we were lost.  The path was non-existent.  We backtracked and Justin ran back for a map we had left in our car and sure enough, we had missed a major turn.  

Happily and sweatily, we began our hike anew.  I will let the video speak for itself.  

Never had I dreamed I would find a place like this to enjoy.  We swam for as long as we could.  Some of us got cold.  And probably the same ones of us got a little creeped out by the possibilities of what lurked beneath the murky water.
When you know there are two foot long lizards hanging out on the rocks and giant fish and who knows what else lurking beneath the water, a couple of bumps on the legs sends an imagination into overdrive.
We hiked back to our car through what looked like Jurassic Park, cleaned up and headed back to the village for dinner.

We found a lovely little restaurant called The Village Restaurant where we had amazing Barramundi in an open-air restaurant in a tropical downpour under a corrugated metal roof with only candles and lanterns to light the tables.  Fish and chips or fish of the day (grilled) were a daily staple for our whole family and even the non-fish eaters became believers. This is Justin's seafood platter...

By now, we had all fallen in love with fresh passion fruit.  A local man brought in a whole supply to the restaurant and we bought a whole bag to eat.  Fascinating little fruit!

When the mossies drove us indoors at night, we taught Kyrsten how to play Euchre which started us down a unexpected road where our daughter who previously resisted playing any game, begged every night to be able to play cards.

So, bellies full and minds blown, we headed back to our little zoo, visited the animals in the dark, went back to our strange room, played some cards, scratched some bug bites and headed to bed.