We slept surprisingly late this morning. The dense foliage surrounding our cabin blocked much of the light that we didn’t realize how late it was. Once we finally got moving we got a better look at the gorgeous vegetation on our doorstep.

We started by walking down to the beach. We were staying in the Cape Trib Beach House after all. We took careful note of the crocodile warning signs. Achtung!

We also passed a tar tree on the property. These rare trees are basically the tree equivalent of poison ivy.

Once back to the car, we drove to the boardwalk where we’d done our night walk. We were excited to see the area in the light of day.

The boardwalks provide a great way to see the beautiful trees, ferns, and palms without getting eaten by crocodiles.

Closer to the ground we saw colorful fungi. Apparently, there are more than 200 different types of fungi in the Daintree. All of them are poisonous, though the Yulanji could apparently use some in small quantities for medicinal purposes.

We particularly liked the fan palms.

We saw quite a few cassowary plums — fruits that only the cassowary can eat due to their high concentration of arsenic.

As we walked, we kept our eyes pealed for snakes, but didn’t see any. In fact, we still haven’t seen one in Australia. But we did see a crocodile footprint in the mud. Or at least we convinced ourselves that’s what it was.

After walking through the forest, the boardwalk reached a tropical beach. We enjoyed walking down the deserted breach, keeping well away from the water in case there were salties.

We went back to the car and drove to another boardwalk, where we had another great walk through the jungle. We saw quite a few small lizards along the boardwalk.

As the sun started to sink Julie spotted another cassowary in the distance!

We spent about 15 minutes on a raised boardwalk over a stream watching the cassowary preen its feathers and drink. Beneath us, archerfish squirted water at leaves to knock insects into the water. A few minutes later, another cassowary joined the first, and together the pair walked off into the woods.

We ended the day with dinner back at the open air restaurant at the Cape Trib Beach House.

We ate, drank, and played Yahtzee. It was a great day. In a sense, Julie and I were both winners. But in a very real sense of high-stakes Yahtzee, I was the winner. Booyah!

-Will