Not being able to swim in the ocean, Sue is keen to try a swimming hole in the small river a few kilometres away. We walk along the beach and have to shelter for a while because it starts to rain, and it really does rain with a vengeance.
When it stops we cross the headland, Cape Tribulation, named because it is here that Captain Cook’s vessel ran aground in 1770. A little further south we must wade across a shallow creek that crosses the sand. This is slightly worrying given the prominent warnings seen previously, but we brave it. Eventually there is a path through the mangroves to the road and Mason’s store, behind which is the swimming hole.
Some local teenagers are swinging on ropes and diving into the pool and Sue gets her swim. On the way back we follow the road and get caught in another downpour, and in the night it rains heavily again. It is the start of the wet season and by the end of December it can rain like this for days at a time.
