As well as being handy for the beautiful Barrier Reef, Port Douglas also has the benefit of being an easy drive to the "Daintree rainforest". Supposedly the rainforest is 6 to 10 times older than the Amazonian equivalent meaning that it was around when dinosaurs ruled the roost. That's easy to imagine as you trek though the thick canopies of mangroves and enormous trees, many with long air roots hanging out. Lots of scope for Tarzan style tree swinging here! Quite spooky in places too as the trees block out about 80% of the sunlight in many places.
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| Swallows getting a free ride on the ferry! |
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| Stream in rain forest |
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| Mangrove swamp |
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| A rare break in the canopy of the rainforest |
Probably the best time to visit is at dusk or at night as that's when the spiders, snakes, birds and numerous other inhabitant emerge. However there was no way that we were going to visit after or even near darkness! Bad enough that in places you walk through what feels like thick clouds of spiders webs!
One of the unusual inhabitants of the Daintree National Park (that includes the river and the rain forest) is the Cassowary, a large but endangered bird that's appeared in this blog previously. It's thought that there are about 60 in the Park and hopefully numbers are rising. The Cassowary female has what some might think of as an incredibly cushy number! She mates, lays her eggs and leaves them for the male to look after and goes and finds another mate. She may mate up to four times each season! The Daddy Cassowary then looks after the eggs and the babies until they are between nine and eighteen months old after which they have to look out for themselves. Guess this doesn't work that well as they are an endangered species.
On the road we stopped at a local Ice Cream Factory. Nothing special to be honest but had a beautiful garden with some exotic butterflies including a Papilo Ulysses. Fantastic magnetic blue but very hard to photograph with an ordinary camera.
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| Ulysses butterfly |
The rainforest is pretty well protected by the Australian government these days after years of mistreatment by the English and other early settlers. It is a fantastic example of how left to itself, nature creates an interdependent world of flora and fauna. Everything has a purpose. Even the common cockroach which in the Mediterranean is thought to be a sign of insanitary conditions. Here it works alongside ants and other insects to chew and clear up the waste from the trees and keep the natural pattern of regeneration going. Fascinating!
Daintree has several boardwalks with explanatory notes so it is relatively easy to explore different areas. Having trekked around several we decided it was time for something different and went to the "Cape Tribulation Exotic Fruit Farm". This is a great example of local enterprise. Set up over 20 years ago by Alison and Digby a couple who were previously teachers, originally from Melbourne. The tropical climate at Cape Tribulation can grow rare and exotic tropical fruit from the Amazon, South East Asia and the Caribbean, over 150 species in all. Patience is definitely a virtue here as some fruits can take nearly ten years to become productive! This area is also somewhat prone to cyclones and the one in 2005 destroyed much of the farm. Such is the tenacity of this couple however that they rebuilt it and today it appears to be a thriving enterprise.
We had the pleasure of joining a tasting of about ten of the exotic fruits grown on the farm. Some looked weird, others were hard to break into, one was very bitter and most were delicious, opening our eyes to a whole new world of fruit. Shame that we're unlikely ever to be able to buy them in Tesco!
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| Tasting fruits. The wooden bowl is from Samoa |
Some of our favourite fruits are pictured here:
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| Mangosteen - their only commercial crop |
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| Pummelo, sweeter than grapefruit |
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| Rambutan. A bit like lychees but much nicer! |
This is a much photographed beach but our pics weren't the best as the heavens opened just as we got to the beach!
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| Cape Tribulation beach. Where sea meets rainforest |
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| A moody moment on Cape Tribulation beach |
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