BEYOND THE RIVER
By this point the calming effect of the
rainforest had started to wash through us and
the day's hustle was soon forgotten. For me,
this was new territory. I'd never been further
north than the river. In fact, my memories of a
childhood trip to Daintree National Park were
focussed more vividly around gift-shops than
the natural wonders. With the perspective of
a few more years, I was happy to gaze out the
window and let my mind drift into a simpler
state.
Our eclectic convoy on this rainforest
sojourn consisted of Hema's LandCruiser 79
dual-cab Map Patrol vehicle, with a monster
V8 and more offroad mods than you could
shake a UHF whip at; a 2019 Cub EscapeWe were on our way to the Bloomfield Track to put
the Cub and Wonderland through their paces
with some northern offroad exposure
those ancient beasts, a cassowary.
Trip photographer Phil snapped us all out of
our nature-induced trances with a yell as we
rounded a bend. He quickly explained that he'd
spotted the bird crossing the road in the other
direction.
A quick roundabout manoeuvre had us hot
on the trail. Phil, videographer Anna and myself
hopped out of the car and stalked along the
roadside as the creature picked its way back
into the dense undergrowth. We were careful
to keep a distance from the flightless feathered
spectacle – having just exchanged anecdotes
of cassowary dangers on the drive, none of
us wanted to find out if the stories of vicious
attacks were true. Tim, for his part, kept the car
idling nearby.camper, champing at the hitch for some
rugged terrain, pulled by a Toyota Prado;
and a 21-foot Wonderland Amaroo caravan
hitched to a VW Touareg.
We were rewarded for our earlier
haste with a little extra time to spend
between the ferry and our destination, the
Daintree Rainforest Retreat, so we took the
opportunity to make a short detour toward
the Daintree Discovery Centre – that was
after finding the car park at Mount Alexandra
Lookout too densely packed with rental-car
hatchbacks for our entourage to gain access.
This proved to be a good call. After passing
the Discovery Centre and spotting a few
of the animated dinosaur statues lurking
nearby, we came upon a living ancestor ofThe Cub Escape set up in a rainforest nook