I hate to sound like a broken record, but we got up, lounged, had coffee and swam in the pool. Hard to beat that. It was much hotter today, though, and I ended up in the pool twice before 10 am.
We scheduled a horse back ride at Cape Tribulation at 11. It was about a 30 minute drive out there and as usual, Susanne and I showed up ridiculously early. We sat around the barn checking out the horses. They looked good and the barn was very clean. The cowboys showed up and started getting ready. We chatted with one for awhile. He grew up in far south western Queensland. He had been running horses here for a couple of years. The other dude, who was the bossman, was missing a bunch of teeth and looked like quite the crocodile dundee type. The had a scruffy-looking dog, too. He was quite friendly and hung out by me and let me pet him.
There were 8 of us on the ride. Most of us were beginners, but one woman from Finland was quite experienced. Susanne was given Thunder and I was given Hell Boy.
We headed off through the rain forest and out to the beach at a very slow pace. We had one short section we got to trot, but mostly we poked along. We went by one stream and you could see a crocodile hanging out under water. It was about 4′ long. That was pretty cool.
We got to beach plodded along, got a spot, took some pics and headed back.
Susanne’s horse was a bit of turd and crabby. Plus the name “Thunder” was a misnomer. I think “Thunderously Slow” would have been better. “Hell Boy” also didn’t really live up to his name. Maybe it was actually “Hell. Boy, that horse is slow.” Thunder also wanted to scrape Susanne off at every tree, stumbled all the time, and got really snarly when he had to cross a creek bed. Susanne was not amused. It was a fine ride, but it was stinky hot and we were both ready to get off our plodding steeds.
After the ride we headed to Whet for lunch and a drink. It was quite yummy. We got a side of chips. Those were super yummy too.
We stopped by the bottle shop and got some water and a bottle of wine and then headed to the other ice cream shop. This turned out to be the one that Murray our guide on the Daintree cruise had told us about. Susanne got passionfruit (surprise!) and I got durian. Durian is something you either really like or think is the most disgusting thing you have ever tasted. I personally like it. Susanne thinks it tastes mushroomy. To be honest, this is the first time I have ever had supernatural biodynamic organic ice cream before. I have no idea what that actually is, but for god sakes with a name like that it must be something special
One of the things that has been disappointing is that we hadn’t seen a cassowary since we have been here. They are the famous large land birds that inhabit the forest. As we were driving up the driveway to the house, I was thinking “bummer, I would have liked to see one.”
As we pulled into the parking, Susanne yelled out “cassowary! cassowary!”
And sure enough, there was one right in the forest by where we park. We got a good look at it but not any good pictures. I tried to get out and take some but it very smoothly disappeared into the forest. But we saw one!
We ate our supernatural (biodynamic) ice cream and jumped in the pool. Whew, that felt nice.
We lounged, napped, read, swam, and lounged.
Tomorrow we head back to Cairns and on to Brisbane, and then home after an overnight in Brisbane. It has been a really good vacation and one that I really needed. I will be sorry to have it end, but I miss my girl badly and will be happy to see her again.
The names of those horses, with those lackluster faces…hilarious! Glad you are enjoying yourselves. xoxo