One man and his rucksack, that's all this little tent could hold!
With just a single pole the tent was easily put up on my own. It was not the tent I was originally after (a 'pop-up' sort that I have back home, up in 1 minute down in 3!) but it did the trick and was very compact for attaching to my rucksack.
This was a great little pitch up against the forest. One night I was awoken by a 'rustling' noise at the entrance to my tent, but a little shuffle of my feet down that end sent the little creature scurrying back into the undergrowth.
The beach is an absolute feature of Cape Trib. The water was very shallow and looking carefully just a few metres from the edge I found umpteen Sting Rays basking in the warm shallow water. I have some bad pictures somewhere!
Also in one of the reef pools I spotted a young octopus. This was a great novelty with them being mostly nocturnal and I spent ages just watching it go about its business and cajoling it with a stick out into the open. Eventually it got bored with me and shot off in a puff of black ink!
There were several 'conservation' walks through the mangrove/rain forest at the beaches edge, and be warned to put your repellent on! I got a couple of nasty bites from the buggers.
The walks were quite well laid out on raised walkways, with stops providing you with information about the rainforest habitation and unusual species of animals/plants/trees that inhabit the region. The forest is pretty dense and you really would not want to go traipsing about the mangroves with the possibility of crocs about, so those raised walkways are essential.
My first cane toad. Well my first live one anyhow, I saw lots of dried up skins!
One of the activities on offer is a rain forest night trek. This was a good opportunity to see some of the nocturnal wildlife when the forest. really 'comes alive'. We were guided by a local chap who took us on a couple of set routes, with a torch in hand we got to see possums, bats, toads, snakes and best of all was the white lipped tree frog - if only that picture had come out better - amazing creatures to see close up. Oh and we also saw hunter spiders and other insects. Good trip.
A bat sanctuary - of all places - right here on the Cape.
Not at all what I was expecting to find but they had a good hut bristling with information and pictures on the little creatures - along with snakes. Now they only had the one bat in when I was there (yes that's him there) but I was amazed when the lady opened up his wing so that I could peek at his little face.
And even stroke him! Very soft fur and the wings were so delicate. He didn't mind - in fact he did not even wake up!
After walking through the mangroves, forest, checking out the bat and cooking of course I was going to relax!
The perfect spot, just under a a leafy fern to keep the harshness of the sun off me. Empty coconut nut shells were all around me and I did wonder if any were going to strike me, but the shells did make great scoops for building my 'recliner'.
Masons Water Hole.
NO WAY was I going for a dip in that hole, even if the sign did say it was croc free! It did not look particularly inviting with the water level was low - even still, just the thought that a croc may be close by put me off. Its a wonder I even made it into the sea so much.
Masons Shop - the only one here - was very close by, and this is were you booked the night trek. Luckily I had stocked up on some decent sausages and bacon at Port Douglas as I did not fancy Masons too much!
Walking further north along the road there is another really large bay, just as nice as the one nearest camp. I managed to walk there just before sunset and got some great views of the sun going down and wispy clouds moving up and over the mountains behind me.
This picture was taken along another raised walk which took you out to one of the points.
And here is that picture of a Ray. Forgotten they were spotted. In fact if he had not been spotted I doubt you would of been able to make it out at all in this picture! The ray takes up most of the frame and you can see his spotted tail in the bottom right.
I was lucky to get this close, as they are very sensitive to movement and soon dash off. Certainly made me more wary of where I was placing my feet in the sea. Thank god for flip-flops.