Joe Blogs - Rainforest: A Cassowary Eye View

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And so, here we are, deep in the beaudiful World Hewitage twopical wainforest of Daintwee situated in Far North Queensland Austwarlia. I am cuwwently sitting 45 metres below the twopical canopy, suwwounded by dense jangew cweepers , vines and cweepy cwarlies . . .

(Scuse me?)

. . . there is just such incwedible biodiversity here. The Daintwee wainforest contains 30%!o(MISSING)f fwog,

(Scuse me? SCUSE ME? Look, if you’re thinking of doing the whole blog in a poor David Bellamy impersonation you can think again. After yesterday’s Jeau Coostarde fiasco, no-one will read it)

Weally?

(Really. Rrrr, rrr, rrrealy).

Oh!

So I’m going to be doing this one and it’s none negotiable. You say nothing and stay within the brackets.

(Silence).

Good . . . . and so:

Here we are, deep in the beautiful World Heritage tropical rainforest of Daintree situated in Far North Queensland Australia. I am currently sitting 45 metres below the tropical canopy, surrounded by dense jungle creepers , vines and creepy . . . sorry, insects, there is just such incredible biodiversity here. The Daintree rainforest contains 30%!o(MISSING)f frog, marsupial and reptile species in Australia, and 65% of Australia's bat and butterfly species. 20% of bird species in the country can be found in this area of approximately 1200 square kilometres.

We were picked up in Port Douglas by a huge 4 wheel drive bus by a man called Bruce (honest) who reminded us very much of Rolf (oo-akka-oo-akka-oo-akka-wakka-wakka) Harris who drove us deep into the rainforest to our first stop, an aerial walkway and viewing tower.

Rainforest is classified vertically into 5 separate layers, though for simplicity sake, it is generally considered to be 3 (the OSI vs TCP/IP of rainforest – work joke, sorry) – the canopy, the mid-storey and the forest floor. Different species of plant and animal live in the different layers. The viewing tower was split into 5 (OSI model) to allow viewing of each of the layers.

A very nice, sweaty man called Chris (Fruit Eater of the Rainforest) talked us through the ecology, it’s all about competing for light. Some things start at the bottom and grow up, and some things start at the top and grow down.

The rainforest is home to a number of unusual species, such as the Cassowary. The Cassowary is a large (up to 6ft) flightless bird with a beautiful blue neck and an enormous rectum (bit like some people I know). They are an endangered species, with only about 1200 of them left in the world. The enormous rectum is important (aren’t they always) as this bird is solely responsible for the propagation of the rainforest. It is the animal big enough to eat the fruit of various species of rainforest tree (which contain large seed pods) and pass them out, thereby distributing the seeds far and wide. Without the Cassowary, the rainforest would die.

(It got me to thinking about people with huge backsides. Clearly, all they are doing is supporting the biodiversity of the planet through the re-distribution of seed-pods etc, though I can’t help but feel sorry for the people who have to do coconuts).

All day long, Bruce (do you know what it is yet?) kept saying “keep your eyes out for Cassie, you never know” and I couldn’t help but feel a little cynical that this was one of those tourist stunts (bit like “keep your eye out for the Abominable Snowman”) when blow me down, one of them walked right out in front of us and crossed the road. (No picture as camera wasn’t ready, you’ll just have to believe me). I was so excited I almost passed a coconut!

After a delightful Barbie deep in the rainforest, we then went for a trip on the Daintree river. Brackish water, this is home to a variety of plant and animal wildlife like the mangrove and the crocodile. In fact, we went in search of some baby crocodiles and we found them too (we were assured that Mum, or Lizzie as she is known locally, a two an a half metre saltwater crocodile, would have been very close by watching us, but we never so much as caught a glimpse of her. Just had to keep our elbows in the boat).

Both Moi and I are amazed at the environment here. The place is alive, and rich with all sorts of weird and wonderful plant and animal life.

It’s the first day of Autumn today. Don’t you love this time of year, when the relentless sunshine backs off a little, the bananas are ripening and the temperatures drop to a balmy 30 degrees C as the tropical storms increase. I often think it must be miserable for those people who have to live in a country where it rains and is cold all the time. I just can't imagine it.

Sigh.

And now . . .

A Funny Thing Happened To Me On The Way To Port Douglas

I had one of those Morecambe and Wise moments on the dive boat the other day that I simply must tell you. My dive buddy was a young Chinese girl called Yuko, and it turned out we both had hired underwater cameras for the day ( there was also an official underwater photographer, bit like a wedding photographer, but underwater, who kept going round taking pictures of people but you had to pay. Organising group photos was a nightmare!!). Anyway, I suggested to Yuko that while we were diving, if she took photos of me and I took photos of here, we could email them t each other and avoid having to buy any. She agreed and we did.

After the dives had finished, I got dried and changed and went to find Yuko to give her my email address. I found her out on the rear desk with her boyfriend. Anyway, I gave her my email address and she gave me hers. There was much smiling and nodding and then we said goodbye. At that moment, her boyfriend opened the door and smiled and I said: “Oh thank you very much” and stepped through the door.

It turns out I had misinterpreted his actions. He wasn’t holding the door open for me, he was simply going for a shower. So there I was, stood in the shower, with him still holding the door.

Oh how we laughed. The Universal Language of Humans. Language was no barrier.

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