Jungle Surf and Hike to Mount Sorrow
Day 5
In the morning, we drove up north for 30 minutes to Cape Tribulation for jungle surfing across the Daintree Rainforest. Jungle surfing is a much shorter version of zip-lining. As such, instead of zip-lining once across the canopy of the rainforest, we had to do it over 6 short trips. At the very beginning, we had to walk on a giant hamster wheel in order to transport the staff up to the first canopy tower. Here is what it looks like.
I was able to capture some video footage of the surfing on my DSLR while Yale captured his on his Go-Pro.
Here are just some pictures of our jungle surf across the rainforest.
Afterwards, we went exploring at Myall Beach and relaxed for the rest of the day. At night, we ate at the local restaurant in our hostel Ferntree Rainforest Lodge. To our surprise, there weren’t any tourists because it was considered to be their quiet season. Summer in Australia hasn’t really started yet. We ended the night with great food.
One thing I would like to mention here are the staffs that work in northeastern Australia. Many young local Australians in their mid 20s and 30s travel overseas for their own travelling adventure. As such, Australia itself lacks the man-power and workforce to meet business demand. After recognizing this problem, the Australian government heavily promotes their working holiday program to attract young foreign workers. The program provides opportunities for young people to have vacation in Australia while working to supplement their travel funds. In the last few years, the working holiday program has a positive effect on the Australian economy. According to Wikipedia, it is estimated that working holiday travellers spend around $1.3 billion annually. The basic working holiday visa grants the visa holder one year of stay. However, visa holders can apply for an additional year. In order to be eligible to apply for a two-year working holiday visa, a visa holder must spend a minimum of three months on “specified jobs” in Australia. These specified jobs are generally agricultural-related, which include plant and animal cultivation, fishing, tree farming etc.
I was able to witness the effect of the working holiday program. During my stay in northeastern Australia, the people who served me as waiters/waitresses, tour guides, hostel receptionists were rarely Australians themselves. These workers were French, German, Dutch, South Korean, Japanese, Americans etc. After talking to most of them, I could feel that they truly enjoyed the working holiday program and they really liked the lifestyle of Australia.
Day 6
We drove up north 30 minutes to Cape Tribulation again in the morning for a mountain hike – Mount Sorrow. Lieutenant James Cook named the mountain as Mount Sorrow in 1770 because his ship struck a reef that required repair by dumping all non-vital heavy items. Although he was able to recover his ship, he continued to name the mountain as it is because of his misfortune.
The trail of Mount Sorrow is 7 km (including return trip) and has an elevation of 680 metres at the peak. The entrance of Mount Sorrow was quite hidden and you had to walk along the sidewalk in order to discover the entrance sign. The hike was quite difficult and steep. Twice in our trail that we needed ropes to climb up the mountain. Although the temperature was not at the highest, the shade from the trees definitely helped cool down our temperature. It took us 2.5 hours to climb up and 2 hours to climb down.
Here is the view at the top.
Oh, I forgot to mention that during our hike, we saw wild lizards and wild snakes. Quite an adventure eh!
At night, we drove down south for 1.5 hours to arrive in Port Douglas and stayed at Dougies Backpackers Resort. Be ready for the next Great Barrier Reef exploration in the next day!
