Cairns Botanic Gardens and Rainforest

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Cairns Botanic Gardens and natural rainforest Friday 16th January 2009

Yesterday we took a bus to the Cairns Botanic Gardens. These tropical gardens are the best we’ve seen anywhere. All of the plants, trees and ferns are tropical, both indigenous and from other exotic locations. One exclusive section houses plants used by Aboriginals for medicines, materials and food. After enjoying the gardens we walked through dense natural untouched rainforest to a region that contains a series of creeks and lakes, both saltwater and freshwater. There are notices warning people to watch out for large crocs; we didn’t see any but felt a bit uncomfortable at times, with only one or two other people about, dense foliage and high humidity. We were actually more worried about mosquitoes; there are ten species in the forest, large and small, including those that carry Dengue fever; we didn’t get any nasty bites. It is essential to spray up really well here, especially at this time of year, with high strength tropical spray, day and night; forget the Givenchy perfume, just let yourself reek of DEET, everyone else does! Part of the walk was on raised boardwalks across swamp. We were especially vigilant in the swampy areas! Here we saw huge blue, yellow and brown butterflies, called “Bird Wing Butterflies”, with six inch wing spans, as well as wild turkeys, big red dragonflies, bright blue moths and numerous birds. What is really amazing is that all of this, rainforest, dense bush, crocs, leeches and mangrove swamp is right on the edge of the city. Cairns is surrounded by dense jungle that looks like it could swallow up this little city in no time just given half a chance; it is a beautiful location. Last night we had a heavy downpour of rain which did nothing to reduce the humidity. Daytime temperatures are only around 28 - 30 degrees, but the humidity is running at about 98%, which is quite exhausting. Today we just swam in the lagoon, lazed in the shade and sought out air con whenever we got the chance! Tomorrow morning we are picking up a car and heading north.

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Photos

Rainforest
Palms and ferns

Exotic plants
Red-coned swamp plants

Blue moths
I hate moths, but have to admit that these are prettier than brown ones!

Swamp
Dense rainforest