Where the Rainforest Meets the Reef

Finally, we've made it out of the Outback! A few wrong turns, a couple canabalistic acts and some hair raising encounters with kangaroos later, we've finally made it out of the desert.... No, only joking! We've been out of the outback for months now, and wow do we have a story to tell!

While in Alice Springs, we made the most of our time and applied to a couple jobs in and around the Cairns region, hoping that someone would reply by the time we reached the coast. Resumes sent, we went off into the Outback. Turns out we had left the worst of it behind us and the journey through Tennants Creek and detouring to the Devils Marbles was hot, yes, but completely manageable. We definitely felt we could take our time.... However, things don't usually work out the way we plan and we suddenly had a deadline looming over us.

The "Devil's Marbles," a series of curious rock formations in
the Outback, North of Alice Springs.

The day after we left Alice Spring, Holly received an email from a lady called Michelle in a response to a job application Holly put in offering her a position at her restaurant, Whet, up in Cape Tribulation. She was desperate for staff and asked if Holly could start right away. She even offered to find a job for Matt too. Seeming too good to be true, we said yes and turned hyperdrive back on as we tore our way towards Cairns. We barely had a moment to think, all we were concerned about was getting to wherever this Cape Tribulation was as soon as possible! In a 5 day world record attempt, we made it from Alice Springs to Cairns. In a whirlwind, we started to prepare for our new sedentary life. We ran around the stores finding uniforms and groceries. Michelle had told us to stock up on groceries because there wasn't really a store in town, to only buy a ferry pass one way and to be prepared for a life without cell phones or internet. Wait a minute... what exactly did we sign up for?!?

It turns out that Cape Tribulation is a small 60 person town in Far North Queensland,  only accessible by crossing the Daintree river on a small ferry. The nearest major town with a hospital and grocery store was Mossman, an hour and a half south. The best part about Cape Trib though, is it comes with it's own slogan "Where the rainforest meets the reef". Cape Trib is the only place in the world where two world heritage sites actually touch: the Daintree Rainforest extends to mangroves that brush up against the fringing reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. We had inadvertently taken jobs in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Myall beach seen from it's northern tip, about a 20 minutes walk out of
Cape Trib. One of Matt's favorite spots and, incidentally, one of the few
places with reception. 

We arrived to Cape Trib in the afternoon, very overwhelmed by the beauty that surrounded us. We met up with Michelle at Whet and she explained to us where we were and what to expect living in the rainforest. We nodded and ate our first of many excellent meals and took it all in. We then asked Michelle what Matt's job would be up here. "Oh, he'll be working down the road at Turtle Rock Cafe and helping out in their office doing work for Ocean Safari, you know, the company that does snorkeling tours on the reef? You'll both get to go whenever you want since he works there." We started at each other in disbelief, had our dream just gotten even better? We walked up to the staff house on the property where we would be staying and settled in, excited for the months to come.

One of our roommates, Asha, liked to stop in and make sure the kitchen
clean of scraps.

When we started work, we were told that the next 4 or so months were considered the wet season up here in the tropics. This meant that one, it was a slower season and the work would be less busy, and two,  it would rain... a lot. The former was not entirely true, and while Whet did cut down to only lunch service, they were unusually busy and Holly was worked hard. The latter was more than true, and while a normal day was mostly sunny with an occasional heavy downpour, we were present for the worst flooding to the region in 118 years, with the Daintree river flooding to 250% causing us to be cut off from the world for 3 days. The roads around town flooded too, though for us that didn't really affect us, mostly just caused a couple days off work! We decided to fight water with well, water and went swimming in one of the swimming holes around town.

Masons swim hole, guaranteed croc-free!

Little known fact, hot-dogs are a known croc repellent!

That's another thing to mention about living in far north Queensland: while we were privy to the most beautiful beaches and bath warm ocean water, we couldn't swim in the ocean. Well, we could, but we would be stung by jellyfish, or attacked by sharks, but more likely, eaten by crocodiles. We were living in croc country, with every beautiful stream running from the mountain and to the ocean home to one. These crocs will swim in the ocean and will sun bathe on the banks of the rivers, so as tempting as the ocean was, we had to swim in certified croc-free holes. That isn't to say we didn't see a couple! Soft spoken croc lover David and the hilarious and totally bonkers Martin from Solar Whisper took us out on the Daintree river on a Croc Cruise to learn about these animals and to see them up close.

Lizzy, just a "small croc" at only 2 metres!

2 year old baby crock swimming along the bank, fishing for his next meal.

Caught something! The crocs need to tilt their head back to swallow.

Crocs weren't the only animals to be wary of in the rainforest. The far more dangerous animals that lived around town were the cassowarys, prehistoric birds with huge talons who are very territorial. In cassowary culture, the males nest and incubate the eggs and the will stay with the young once they've hatched until adulthood. The mothers take the next bus down to Cairns and shake their tail feathers at Gilligan's backpackers until they have to have babies the next year. These males, presumably just resentful they don't get to party once the eggs are laid, will get extre extremely aggressive if they are with their chicks; never get between a dad and his chick if you want to remain unscathed. We had rubbish luck seeing any though, having to tell tourists who asked where to find them we had no clue! We decided to start frequenting the Dubuji Boardwalk that ran through the mangroves and down to the beach, we had been told there was a male and his chick living there. Low and behold, we finally saw one! Standing on the boardwalk was a male, proud in his bright blue feathers, and walking in the Bush was his brown colored chick. We grabbed the camera and started taking pictures.

Cassowary spotted on the boardwalk!

And his little chick as well!

Holly managed to snatch this amazing picture of a male cassowary on Dubuji
boardwalk, with it's chick in tow (out of frame), about two weeks later.

Dubuji Boardwalk, our favourite walking spot.

A massive strangler fig. This type of vine grows
around a host tree until it almost completely covers it,
killing the host and leaving behind the hollow strangler tree.

When we weren't channeling our inner Steve Irwin and chasing down dangerous animals, we were in the daily work routine. Holly's job at Whet included serving tables, perfecting her barista skills for the Australian coffee snobs and bar-tending to all the locals who would rock up at any hour and look for their schooner of gold. She certainly got to know everyone around town quickly and learnt that there is no such thing as too early for tequila shots around Cape Trib! Matt's work split him between Turtle Rock Cafe where he learnt how to barista and the Ocean Safari office where he would welcome people to their accommodations, book them tours and offer all round advice. We felt ourselves fitting into the comunity, which was something different in itself. Having no phone or internet service means that everyone talks to one another and meets up in person so the social life was vibrant and the community was very close knit. Businesses would rely on word of mouth to advertise so they would promote one another and (luckily for us) allow front of house staff to experience their activities so they could up-sell them to customers. We became so close to everyone we worked and lived with, where it was at Safari Sundays or Parmy Night at Whet, there was always a chance to relax and catch up with the rest of the town.

We got to go parasailing with the Whet crew on someones birthday!

While the memories we have are fantastic, living in the rainforest did take some getting used to. For one, the wet season really is wet so everything would get moldy very quickly, be it food, clothes, walls or even hair! It was a constant battle at home and at work to keep things clean and fresh, making use of the sun when it came out so things could finally dry. Another thing that took at while to get used to was the lack of boundaries between the outside and the inside. The house we were staying in had no glass in the windows nor any doors so it was open the to rainforest (well, except the bedrooms thankfully!) and the wildlife made themselves right at home. We would have spiders on the wall, skinks under the fridge and frogs in the kitchen. While nothing was dangerous, it would give you a fright walking in on a toad in the toilet in the middle of the night. Speaking of frights, another familiar face around the rainforest were the Golden Orb spiders. These beauties would spin enormous webs, usually at head height along paths, and sit there in all their glory for weeks, waiting for males to come visit and for them to have their babies. Terrifying at first due to their size, these spiders actually became one of our favourite things about the rainforest (mostly because they didn't move) and we try and spot bigger and bigger ones. We also encountered a plethora of other amazing insects that we never thought to even look for. 

We both became fond of these little guys, even if they did grow to the size of our hand!

Beautiful moths made for great photography practice.

Giant crickets, yes, they do bite!

A Praying Mantis, hang out.

Can you spot the Peppermint Stick Insects?

This Rhino Beetle surprised Matt at work one morning!

Of course though, the best memories we have of our time in Cape Trib were our trips to the Great Barrier Reef! It was such an amazing experience, made even more special by being taken out by friends. It was truly indescribable experience, so we're not going to even try to put it into words. Instead, we'll leave you with a couple pictures and you'll have to wait until we figure out how to put together a video of the footage we took and post it in another blog post!

Just proof we both went!

All in all, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect place to work in Australia. We were so sad to leave and will most definitely be back as soon as we have the chance. However, adventure calls and we have to finish our road trip back down the coast. We set off Tuesday the 7th and have gotten used to van life once again. We've made it to Airlie Beach already, though we'll save those stories for another time!