Daintree National Park

Sugar cane harvesting.

You can't swim from the the beaches or the rivers because of the crocs.

A male cassowary and chick!

The beautiful ancient rainforest apparently the oldest on earth.

A mud skipper. One of the first creatures to venture out of the water onto the land.

The fruit of the tree that is poisonous but the cassowary eats it whole and passes the seed thus propagating the plant.

The ferry across the Daintree River.

Daintree village main drag.

Sunday June 26^th

I woke up early and after breakfast decided to drive north to Daintree National Park and visit Mossman Gorge which everyone at school had told me to see. The first part of the road was through sugar cane fields and past the mountains. Since it was drizzling a little bit when I got to the gorge I decided to leave it until the end of the day.

A little further along the road I came to the Daintree River Ferry Crossing which was a barge pulled across the river by cables. It carried about fifteen vehicles across the croc infested river. The road on the other side is narrow and winds through the rainforest reputed to be the oldest on earth. This is where the rainforest comes right down to the ocean and parts of it are actually growing on sand. I turned off and took the even smaller road past the Daintree Discovery Centre to go to Jindalba National Park further along the road. As I turned a corner I found a cassowary crossing the road! This is a 6ft tall flightless bird with a blue head. I stopped on the road and watched as it stopped and turned and looked back. I had separated the bird from a large chick which was hestitant to cross because of my car. The adult made a couple of sounds and the chick crossed in front of me and they stood there for a minute looking at me and then disappeared into the forest. Very cool!

At the end of this road was the Jindalba Boardwalk through the rainforest. I always feel honoured and awed to be in one of my favourite places, the rainforest, enjoying the majesty of the trees, the quiet and the heavy damp moisture ladden air.

I drove back to the Daintree Information Centre and paid the entrance fee to take a walk through another part of the forest on a raised canopy walk and climb a tower to see the forest from above. They also had a very interesting interpretive centre where I learned that female cassowaries are larger than males and do nothing regarding parenthood other than laying the eggs. The male incubates them and then rears the chicks for about a year. The cassowaries are ancient birds which are vital for the rainforest. They eat forest fruits whole (including poisonous ones) and disperse the seeds in their droppings thus planting new trees. Some of the trees are dependent on this process and scientists have discovered that a seed passing through the bird has a 95 percent chance of germinating but only 5 percent if it doesn't. Reading all the information I was once more reminded not to touch or pick up anything in Australia. There is a plant that has silicon hair around the edge of its leaves which release a burning irritant which causes a severe itching that lasts for months!

After leaving the centre I continued the drive to Cape Tribulation and the Kulki Lookout where I photographed the view and walked along the beautiful beach. There are nice sandy beaches along parts of the road, but they all have signs warning you not to go in the water or near the edge because of the crocs (salties and freshwater ones) and in the summer 'stingers' which are deadly fingernail size jellyfish. Their stings can cause an agonizing death apparently. I have heard a couple of people talk about a woman who was taken by a croc a couple of weeks ago on one of these beaches as she was standing knee deep in the water! You have to wonder why anyone lives up here.

I drove a few kilometres north until the pavement ended. My rental car agreement says I cannot take the car off road on the unpaved roads up here so I turned back. The road continues to Cooktown but is not suitable for anything but a four wheel drive vehicle.

On the way back I took another walk through the forest on a different trail called the Narrdja boardwalk and delighted in the smells of wet earth and salt air. I stopped at a restaurant along the way that sold burgers of croc, roo, emu, wild boar, camel and buffalo. I had a sampler plate of the first three, which was very good.

After taking the return ferry I drove to Daintree Village and had a look around. It is a very small village with not much to offer except a couple small places to stay.

On the way home I stopped at Mossman Gorge but it was too late to do the trek so I got some information for tomorrow and drove back to the hotel (and my two bedroom apartment) for the evening.