We Spent 48 Hours Inside the World’s Oldest Rainforest (and spotting WILD Cassowaries)

We definitely needed a coffee to start today. Today we are starting our road trip up to Daintree National Park and we're at Rooftepe. Cheers. Alright, first lookout of the day. Made it to Rex Lookout. Wow, the drive up here, stunning. Along the coastline, the blue water, the green trees. What a pretty viewpoint this is. So most people who do Daintree National Park just make it a day trip. Drive up and drive back. But there's so many different stops to choose from. We decided to stay overnight one night just so we can stop every place we want and really enjoy ourselves and take our time. Our next stop is here at the Mossman Gorge. You're supposed to park at the cultural center and then you have to buy shuttle tickets and then they shuttle you into the gorge. And that's as much information as I know at this moment in time. You guys got the tickets? Yeah. How much were they? $14 Australian dollars. So when Sammy said gorge, I figured like, you know, huge rock structures. You can look down and see water flowing through. But we're like in the middle of the rainforest. This is so cool. We've already heard like some parrots squawking. It's like a nice stream running through. And the smells in here are just so nice, so relaxing. Yeah, when we were driving in, it said the entrance to the Daintree National Park. So we're officially in the thick of it. Yeah, this is cool. It's like minty and foresty at the same time. Good description. Yeah, thank you. The first one to spot a wild cassowary is the winner. We always try to make something a competition in this family. And that's the game today. You know the little thin ones they got to come down? Original folks who lived here used them as fish lines. Really? He's making stuff up as you go? Yeah, I heard the guide back there. He's piggybacking on a tour group. That's what we usually do. That's true. We did not expect a swimming spot on this walk. But the water is so beautiful. It's like that emerald green. They have all these huge boulders. Some awesome views. So if you come, you can bring your swim shorts and take a little dip. The water looks pretty inviting. Oh yeah, it does. For sure. It looks refreshing. You want to take a dip? I do. So this rainforest walk is just over 2 kilometers long. It should take you just over an hour. But it's just really pretty and peaceful through here. So quiet going through the rainforest. Across the bridge, the guide coming the other way says, Hey mate, it's like a Friday night, eh? Oh, good enough. Your footing is a little off. Is the water refreshing? Oh yeah, it feels so good. I wish I could swim so bad. I'm trying to think of a way I can pull it off. We're going to miss the shuttle. It only comes every 15 minutes. We had to run to catch the shuttle. I'm sweating. It's 4 tires and 100% humidity. True. So I just went and bought a bottle of water. And this is the first place that's been cash only. So I finally got to break my 50. And I got some change. Look at this. This is $2, Tommy. I haven't even showed him yet. $2 a gallon. I like how small it is. That's nice. It's so tiny. But the $1 is bigger. And then they have like a 50 cent piece that's pretty big. He was showing me all the money. That's cool. But I got two little $2. That's $4 right there. So we just made it down to Daintree River. We're about to do a crocodile tour. So we wanted to see crocodiles in the wild without them feeding them and stuff. So we decided to do one of the local river tours here. We're going with a company called Solar Whisper. Because it's a family run business. There's only a few people working. And they run the only zero emissions boat on the Daintree River. So not only can it glide up to the animals because it's super quiet. But it also doesn't harm the habitat. That's awesome. Yeah, we're really excited. We want to see some crocs in the wild. Fingers crossed. It's about time we see some animals, right? Yeah. We're ready. The telephoto. The phone. The binoculars. The 360. Sammy's cam. We're ready. I'm so excited to see new people. Did you just make that up? That'd be a good name though. We just saw our first crocodile. Her name is Sandy. She's a juvenile. It was so cool. She was cruising super slowly through the river. It took about, I don't know, three minutes. Small girl. Our guide is amazing. He's been doing this for quite a while. It's about family business. He just stated something that was very interesting. Crocodiles can live 70 to 100 years in the wild. And I think a record was 115 in some zoo. Which is crazy. For a long time. So we just saw an adult female named Scooter. I love that they name all their crocodiles around here. The biggest one we saw yet. She was out of the water a little bit and kind of went underneath. You see her blinking. Such pretty eyes. I love the colors when they blend in so well. The scenery behind you is beautiful. Yeah, like in the mangroves. Like we're back in Louisiana. I know. I'm in my stomping grounds right now. Pretty cool. We just saw an eagle fly under the branch. It was so beautiful. He said there's lots of eagles now because of all the bats they have. And we just floated by. And there are thousands of these giant bats. I expected just crocodiles, but we're getting the full animal tour on this one. So that tour was pretty great. Better than I expected, actually. We saw how many crocodiles in total? Four? Five? Five. Can't beat that. Plus the eagle and those thousands of bats. Those bats were crazy. So cool. I really liked your guide. He wasn't over-talkative, you know. He was very informative without going on too much. And calm. He had a very calm tone. Very casual. Casual, yeah. It was great. Highly recommend. Yeah, it's good. Even in the high water, high tide period, when you usually see more with low tide, it's still good. Yeah. And we got to see the one swimming, which is always more exciting than just sitting there on the shore. We just got our tickets for the ferry. It is $49 Australian dollars for a return trip. That kind of blows my mind a little bit. For a two-minute ride. Yeah, I was expecting maybe like $10. But Jackie said they have a Monopoly on it, so we don't have any other choices. It would be really hard to explore all of these incredible spots in Daintree without having access to fast and reliable internet. It's been a game-changer for getting around and navigating the area, which is why we're super excited to be partnering with Olifly for this trip. Olifly is decent. It makes it super easy to stay connected. We always download our plans before we arrive to a new country. And then after we land, we're able to activate it and have instant access to unlimited data, which makes it super easy to call an Uber to your hotel or secure transportation. Using an eSIM means no running around trying to find that physical SIM card. You just connect automatically. Tommy and I have been using Olifly in over seven countries, and it's hands-down one of the most convenient travel tools that we rely on. It's been super convenient on this trip because Tom and Jackie are also using it, so we're all able to stay connected whenever we're out and about. Olifly is very affordable, and they offer plans in over 200 destinations. So if you're interested in fast and reliable data for your next trip, definitely check out Olifly. We're going to leave a link in the description box below, and you can use our code SAMIANDTOMMY for 5% off your next eSIM. We just made it to Alexandra Lookout, and it's absolutely beautiful. You can see the entrance to the Daintree River down there that we were just on. All right, the most important stop of the day. We're getting some homemade organic ice cream. I think we just came upon their farm, and they grow a bunch of tropical fruits, and there's tons of different flavors to choose from. So basically, it's four flavors in the one cup. That way, you get to try a few different things. All the normal flavors, so coconut, mango, good tropical flavors there. Black sapote and wattle seed, quite unique. What are those? What do you have? Please, tell me. So black sapote, this one's a fruit from Mexico that we grow in the orchard out here. It's known as your chocolate pudding fruit. So with chocolate pudding fruit, though, when we mix it into the ice cream, it tastes like pancake batter. And it tastes like chocolate on the edge. We like to be fast, yeah? I got the coffee with cardamom. It just sounded like the pick-me-up I needed for the afternoon. And also, I love cardamom. Anything with cardamom, like a chai tea. True. I bet it's going to be so good. It tastes like a chai tea. This is amazing. Oh my gosh. Tom? Your favorite? Interestingly enough, the wattle seed, whatever in the hell that is, is my favorite. How about you? Wattle seed. Yeah, wattle seed too? And the wattle seed is the one that's indigenous to Australia. So that's really great. That's everybody's favorite. It's so tasty. Can you describe the flavor? I cannot, but the guy who served us the ice cream, I'll cut to him. It's going to give you a taste of like roasted hazelnut. It's like mocha. Jackie said she could describe it. Go for it, Jackie. It tastes like wattle seed. Oh, it's cold. Refreshing. This is our one night stay in the Daintree. A little bed, AC, a couple towels. That's all we need. All right, we just checked into our tiny little cabin. This place is pretty cool. It has like a bunch of pool tables, like a dance floor. Nice swimming pool too. It's pretty busy, and they have like eight beers on tap, which is fantastic for being out here in the middle of nowhere. I would recommend a local pale ale. I'll put the name right here. Cheers, you guys. It is so warm here. This hits the spot. It's such a bummer because we saw a cassowary in the car. So we're just driving and I spotted the cassowary. It's maybe like 10 meters off the road. That's so exciting. And it was back in the woods. Anyway, we put our blinkers on, we pulled over to the side, we slowed down, we were taking pictures of it. A car pulled up behind us and was doing the exact same thing. They had their lenses out. We were all like vibing with the cassowary. Then a lady pulled up behind them and just laid on her horn, like belayed it. It would not get off her horn. And so unfortunately we didn't get any shots of it. It ran away. It ran away so quickly. I mean, oh, such a bummer. Why did she do that? It was such a vibe killer. We were so excited to see our first one too. She was in a hurry to go somewhere, obviously. After I enjoy one or two of these beers, we're going to do a little walk around here. We actually walked on the beach for a little bit. It's like a 40 minute circular walk around the boardwalk. It looks really nice. This spot was only $40 per night for the little cabin, which is a super great deal for the air conditioning. And I just love the vibe. It is super chill here with all the amenities you need. I wonder if there's any snakes in there. So the first part of this walk is on this gorgeous beach. Look how huge this is. It just keeps going. Look at the beautiful palm trees in the greenery. It's a great spot. It's a shame you cannot swim because of the box jellyfish and crocodiles. It's interesting that they give you vinegar for the stingers. It must be pretty common that they offer it right here. Is he talking to the trees? This walk is so nice at sunset. You can hear all the birds and all the insects coming out. It's just really cool walking through the rainforest. I read that the Daintree Rainforest is the oldest rainforest on earth by more than 10 million years. Good night, mate. We are pooped. So many fun activities today. Tomorrow we're going to do a couple more boardwalks. Boardwalk walks? Yeah. Explore the rainforest a bit more. See the Cape Tripulation. And hopefully spot some more cassowaries. Not some more. We're going to capture one for the camera for sure. I don't care how long it takes us. We're going to find one. That's the goal. Wow. The sounds right now are wild. Time to get some dinner and maybe a couple more beers. See you guys tomorrow morning. Good night. Good morning. Good morning, people. Starting this morning off doing a little bit of birding. Lots of birds out early today. Yeah. We heard them. I mean, it was bright and early and we heard them chirping. We're like, you know what? Let's just get out of bed and see what we can see. The bright and early morning is always the best for everything. Before breakfast or coffee, we're already searching for birds. One was singing to us already. We saw this huge bat fly overhead. I didn't quite get that one. But yeah, so many colorful birds. Great way to start the day. So we just had a quick breakfast and a flat white again. And now we're going to go find Big Bird. Sammy saw it yesterday, but hopefully I'm feeling it this morning. I feel like we're going to see it and actually get it on camera. Big Bird. Say it. What's the name of it? Say it. Cassowary. Oh! Cassowary. Sometimes Tommy has trouble pronouncing things. I just forget the name. Cassowary. It was Absur. Abin. So we just saw another Cassowary, but as soon as we pulled over, we kind of lost it. It's such thick brush here. It's so hard to spot them through the lens. Only saw them for a split second though and they were gone. Super fast too. Dang it. So we're just starting the Naja walk. It's about a 45 minute round trip walk. Starting off by this stream. All the birds are chirping. I love being on this walk early in the morning. The sunlight is just like poking through the trees and like everything's kind of like glowing lime green. And it's very quiet. That's the thing about getting up early. You're never with a ton of other people. Look, a great big python going up that tree. Tom, be careful. Looks like an anaconda, doesn't it? This thing is huge. How cool is this guy just wraps around. I was just telling dad, I wish I could start every day with a super peaceful, quiet walk like that. It would definitely set you like in the right frame of mind just for the rest of the day. That was so nice. It's hot already though. All right, back on the hunt for Big Bird. Come on. So we're doing our last activity on this road trip. We're doing the Cape Tripulation Beach and the Cool Key Boardwalk. Welcome to Cape Tripulation. It's absolutely stunning. It's so beautiful. It's the only place in the whole world where two world heritage sites meet. And it's the Daintree National Park and the Great Barrier Reef. Beautiful. I love the layers of water though. You can see all the different shades of blue. What a gorgeous spot. That crab was talented. They're artists for sure. Wow, look how cool. Make sure you're shedding. How many chin-ups can you do? 20. Show it. I don't want to break the brand. I'm just too strong. So no luck with the cassowary besides the two spottings we have, which I can't complain about. That's already super lucky. There's still time to see one hopefully, but it's not looking good. On our way out, we're so lucky. We didn't give up. We finally saw one up close. That was so fun, wasn't it you guys? Super cool. That was fabulous. So lucky. Yeah. We were trying for hours and it paid off. They're so beautiful. The blue is so vibrant. Well, that was fun. Good job people. It's a great two-day road trip. The landscapes in this area are just so unique and beautiful. I'm really glad we took our time and enjoyed it all. The walks were super great and formative. It was so nice seeing all of the different variety of plant life in this area. And can't wait to explore more of Australia. It's a fun road trip. Family road trips. They're the best. Yeah, they are.