Days 8-9: Port Douglas and the Rainforest

As we were about to leave Cairns, it was time to pick up our rental car (which turned out to be a bit too small for our 2 suitcases so we decided to upgrade) and start driving down the east coast of Australia, our first stop was to be Port Douglas, going through the Daintree Rainforest.

At this point, it’s worth noting that since Australia was a british colony at some point, they drive on the wrong side of the road (if it’s not right, it must be wrong™), but we were surpised to discover that everything is on the other side inside the car, from the driver’s seat to the turn signals, everything was wrong. In fact, it will take us about two weeks of driving before we stopped turning on the window wiper every time we wanted to turn (and after that, we will reach NZ where things will change – keep reading…).

A Little Bit About Rental Car Insurance in Australia      (and New Zealand for that matter…) So in Australia, when you rent a car, you have automatic insurance coverage, after the first $3000 that is – what does that mean? it means that if you scratch your car, and they estimate that it will cost $200 to fix it, you pay the $200, if you on the other hand crash the car and the cost of repair is $10,000, you pay the maximum of $3,000 (They call this Excess). Now here’s the part that is really annoying – you pay regardless of fault – even if somebody crashes into your car and gives you his details and everything, they don’t care – you pay. Unless of course you pay an extra of $20-$30 a day for what the call “Excess Reduction” which lowers your excess to $300, you can also opt for the “total protection” (around $40-$50 a day) which means your excess drops to $0.

Now, those of us who know us, know that Sivan has two hobbies: napping and pee breaks. About 30 minutes of driving out of Cairns, sivan wanted to check out one of the local restrooms, so we got off the road and parked the car and Sivan went to the bathroom. When she got back, I took her picture in the car, sitting on the wrong side and went to take some pictures of the view. That’s when I heard the crash. Apperantly, some guy backed into our car and bent our rear fender. Again, this is 30 minutes after we picked up the car, about 45 minutes after I told the guy at Hertz that “Excess Reduction is for suckers” and “No thank you, I won’t be needing that coverage”.

 

Updated information: When we returned the car, they wanted to charge us $3000 for that measly scratch, after some yelling, they lowered it to $1000, still crazy for that small scratch but we have travelers insurance and MasterCard insurance, we hope it will be ok, meanwhile, we are in New Zealand, where we rented another car, refused excess, and dented it as well (keep reading, when we get to NZ we’ll tell you all about that…)

Oh well, on we go, north towards the Cape Tribulation area where we would venture into the rainforset and try not to die. The drive there was really beatiful – rainforset on one side, beach on the other, curves in the road that make you thank god for not falling off the (wrong side of the) road, but truly beautiful. We arrived at Daintree Rainforest where we stopped at an information center, which was a young girl in a building that has two doors, when you go in the one door, it’s an information center, and when you go in the other door, it’s a convenience store, with the same girl covering both sides. She was nice and told us a bit about where to go and how to look out from things that want to kill you in the rainforest (mostly snakes – her suggestion: “Don’t step on the them – they don’t like that”).

And so we went into the forest and walked on a little boardwalk which takes you on a tour into the forest and tells you a bit about what you see, strangling fig trees, ferns that grow on other trees, weird lizards, scary birds, a type of rainforest turkey and other varieties of forest life, but what I remember most were the mosquitos, who apperantly, are oblivious to Sivan and immediately latched on to me.

We walked in, Sivan stopping at signs and reading, me trying to take pictures and smacking myself in different places in a futile attempt to kill mosquitos (mossys as the locals fondly refer to them) and after about 30 minutes we found ourselves on a beach. I was extremely relieved since the mossys like to stay in the forest. On the other hand, in the water you can find those pesky stingers and on the beach you will find crocodiles. Seriously think about it: Three layers: Forest: Snakes and a million other things that can kill you, Beach: Crocodiles that can kill you , Water: Jellyfish that can kill. WTF Australia?

We then headed to port douglas, a nice beach town which was so lovely we dediced to stay an extra night! We treated ourselves to a nice dinner and called it a night.

We woke up the next day and left to go for a walk around another rainforest, this time a little bit wilder and a litte bit less mosquitoi near a place called Mossman Gorge which is a natural fresh water pool replete with waterfalls and a rainforest backdrop, apperantly, this is where the locals go for a swim during stinger season (I guess they don’t mind the crocs).

Australian Opening Hours – Workin’ Nine to Five Australians appreciate their leisure time. So much so that if you go to the mall after 5pm, you might find an open McDonalds and sometimes a supermarket, but everything else will be closed. Actually, there is one day in the week when this doesn’t happen – Thursday, that’s the day you get your shopping done, get your hair done, send your mail and generally attend to your TCB activities.

At about 5pm we headed back in the hopes that we can find some food and we set our GPS to a random place near the beach, hoping that there will be open places there. The GPS took us to a nice observation point, which was lucky, but no food.

We remembered that our hotel had a barbeque (barbie) so we rushed to the supermarket where we were pleasenantly surprised to see that it was still open. We bought some meats (Lamb Chops and Chicken, Yum!) and some potatoes for dinner despite the dirty looks we got from everyone in the store for coming in so late (We left after they came over to us and said: “You know, the store is closed…”) from the supermarket we went to the bottle shop and got ourselves a nice Australian Shiraz and drove to the hotel where we feasted on the food we made and then did a bit of night swimming in the warm pool during a sudden downpour of tropical rain. Was really really fun, one of our best nights in Australia.