Daintree Day

This was probably out most ‘activity’ day. At least for a while. An early getaway from Port Douglas (after I survived a flooded bedroom! The fridge – hidden in a cupboard. Didn’t even know I had it.- defrosted. Serious pile of towels to stem the tide after I’d got very wet feet turning the light on at 5:30am.)

First stop an indigenous cultural experience and rainforest walk. Interesting enough from an entertaining young man. First a smoking ceremony – we all had to do several circuits of the smoking fire – then various stops illustrating various cultural activities – the red cedar buttresses are good for boomerang construction, revered elders are wrapped in bark and placed in the base of old trees with strangling fig roots encasing the base, a large rock complex used for shelter and ceremonial purposes. (He had to go through the gap and reassure the spirits that we were ok to visit.)

Also in this area, a nice creek and some interesting vegetation. How many types of climbing plants are on the boulder?

Next we went on a bit further to a cruise on the Daintree River. Small shallow-draught tinny with space for 20 or so. They promised crocodile sightings. Seems that they monitor the locally- resident females. Take note of their nest building in November and monitor the egg hatchings in February. We saw 3 females basking in what they hoped might be sun. (We got about 5 min early afternoon, after we had left the river.) Highlight for me was seeing a very young croc on a small branch pretending to bask in the sun. Too far away for a photo. (At least that’s what they said we were seeing. Could have been a plastic model. By then I’d pretty much given up getting any serious info from the guy who clearly hated Victorians. )

So then across the Daintree River on the vehicle ferry and then a long drive with more roadworks and forest on all sides to a family business established on freehold land in the middle of the World Heritage Area – when the area was proclaimed as WHA, the owners were told they could no longer operate an orchard if it brought in more than 10%% of their income. They sold out to the current family – husband and wife who are seriously into rainforest ecology. They run walking tours on their property during the tourist season. Very detailed knowledge and discussion on insects and all living things. Way above my ability to understand it all. Impressive umbrella palms. Some of the trees apparently over 900 years old. Tall palm-type trees that apparently grow 1m every 100 years. So much is highly poisonous. (Famous mushrooms have nothing on this lot.) Oh look at this insect camouflaged on this tree trunk! This is a leaf-eating insect. This morning we saw egg-shaped purple fruit that are apparently poisonous but much loved by cassowaries. Much discussion on how important for the survival of species is the spread of seeds away from the host plant. The cassowaries do a great job with these ‘cassowary plums’. Lots of evidence of passed-through plums ready for germination.

So I’m pretty pooped tonight. No TV or Telstra here tonight so can’t follow the footy. And wifi only in the dining area. Cooktown tomorrow night. And that will be pretty much the end of the tall green forests I reckon. It’s been very green.

and now I’ve got this far it seems I can’t go back and edit obvious typos. Hope you can make sense of it all.