I got rid of the Mad Monday Mohawk
So in an effort to be normal and get some sleep, i decided to head to Cape Tribulation, the trip sort of presented itself to me after i spent a few hours going to some other hostels in town, needed to find some normality, a new hostel seemed like the easiest way to achieve this
This was after spending a week partying, including gold fish racing, wet-t shirt competition's, drinking every night.
So i paid up, all i had to do was be at reception next morning, which i was and we were off, i jumped in a bus and the driver took us there, hallelujah!!
It could have been a friendly cat!
Along the way, this is what i learnt...
Captain Cook was the first winging pom.
It would appear the Captain was up around the Cape and and the natives were most hostile, it's just not cricket, so he though the best thing to do was to get back to civilization, where? England, of course! And with great haste, the only thing is, he decided all of this, during a full moon, at night and traversed over a reef.
Now it would appear, the first rule in Sailing is, never ever, ever sail during a full moon, at night over a reef, but who would dare tell this famous captain? It would be pointing out the obvious now wouldn't it?
A Cassowary (The most dangerous bird in the world)
It would seem to be obvious enough, even for the land lovers? He's not looking like such a great captain anymore, is he?
So, in a last ditch effort they threw everything off of the boat, got the people off, and as luck would have it (was this the first of British luck?) a tide came in, lifted the boat, the coral lodged in the boat came with the boat and acted like a plug, by this stage they had the spare sail nailed down over the bottom of the boat to seal the ship. They were out of danger, hip hip hurrah!!
Cassowary's have their problems too!
So instead of heading home for a cup of tea, he had to sail 100kms up the coast to whats now known as Cooks town and beach the ship on a sand bar to make emergency repairs
How did Cape Tribulation get its name? Apparently Cook's diary said 'Here lies out trials and tribulation', near there is Mount Sorrow, aptly named as they all thought they were going to die and Cook's journal described it as an impenetrable jungle, good for nothing except danger.
Whats funny is, the Aboriginals were given the cape, as it was thought up until the 70's in Australia that rain forests were absolutely useless, this was after the aboriginals were kicked off their agricultural land that was useful to the white fellas.
Who would have thought that more than 1 million people would want to see the Daintree/Cape Tribulation rain forest every year? And the Aboriginals get a cut of the action, for letting tourists pass through their lands?
Now, i went to Cape Tribulation to chill out, get sleep, after getting very little sleep in Cairns, the first night i got a few hours, with some snoring guy in my room.
The second night, there was a big rain storm, very windy, noisy, i was cold = NO SLEEP
The next morning i asked the chick on reception if i could lie down until my bus came, she said no, politely, to which i politely said that i just felt like choking someone, it was like that.
The most efficient predator in the world, this follow is getting rid of excessive heat via the tail, plus he is sensing the river life VIA the tail
I can do without sleep more that anyone, but there comes a point where enough is enough, you just need to get a bit of shut eye.
It's funny Captain Cook was there on the 10th of June 1770 and i was there 10th of June 2011, 241 years on to the date, and Cape Tribulation is still driving people mad!!
Conclusive proof that history really does repeat itself?
No comments:
Post a Comment