crocodiles and a cassowary

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Blog6

Sorry got it wrong we are heading for the Daintree river then Cape Tribulation then Cooktown.
Of course we had already been though Townsville ,before Wallaman falls, we only stopped there for lunch , we drove along a deserted esplanade stopping at the far end in a restaurant overlooking an empty rock pool, there were cameramen filming a news report, apparently the beaches were closed and had been off and on for the past 10 days due to intermittent croc sightings , after 3 days of no sightings the council had opened the beaches so that the junior surf patrols could hold their annual races, the children ran into the water and promptly ran out again ,the patrols had spotted the crocs again , on top of this the only other swimming area , the rock pool we were now overlooking had developed a red algae infestation and had to be drained , the news paper reports made for colourful reading with the incompetent council being called all sorts of drongoes. Still there was water trickling through a pipe behind the reporter so one can assume the pool was being refilled, I bought a local paper , and croc traps were being set up on the beach, the crocs would be relocated. So that was Townsville.
We reached the town of Daintree, where we booked a river trip which included croc spotting , the guide was very informative about the bird life and flora , we ate hibiscus flowers , observed tree snakes , a crackle came over the radio a croc had been spotted near where we had boarded and so we started back at great speed , and sure enough there it was basking on a sandy bank, we had seen our croc. From here we went across on the Daintree ferry to cape Tribulation , this is of course where Captain James Cook famously holed his ship , ‘The Endeavour’ on the reef , now called the Endeavour Reef, on 11th June 1770, the crew were able to float the ship by wrapping a sail around the boat temporary sealing the hole and 7 days later beached the ship on the Endeavour river to make repairs at what is now called Cook town , and because Cook and his crew stayed in Cooktown for 47 days, the people claim the distinction of having the first settlement in Australia. Still I get ahead of myself Cape Tribulation is beautiful ,its where the rainforest meets the sea , so you have a crystal clear blue sea edged in white sand backed by lush greenery. But you can’t go in the water, stingers and crocs. Which brings me to another story , the day after we left there were reports in the paper of a Belgian tourist seeing a croc waded into the water beating the water with a stick so that he could get a better picture he was lucky the croc wasn’t hungry it only bit his leg , he is quoted as saying, ‘’yes I was stupid and I still didn’t get a photo ‘’. This caused more uproar there were calls from some departments to catch the croc and relocate him , but the locals thought it better to catch the tourist and relocate him.
And so on to Cook town ,we stayed at Archer Point this is 10 clicks outside of cook town , it’s another free sight with no limit on the duration of your stay . We stayed for 4 days. Now I know exactly when we arrived in Cooktown the Melbourne cup was just reaching its conclusion so it was the first Tuesday of November .We had to wait until the race finished to get a cold beer , you find yourself still talking to people your parents had warned you to avoid. This is a very untouristy town there is a statue of the man holding a telescope and a cairn that marks the spot where the boat was beached for repairs ,there is also a museum , it is one of the best museums I have visited . Here is an account of how the Aborigine peoples viewed the event , they had observed the big canoe over several days making its way into the mouth of the river but had generally ignored it as they had seen other canoes passing and they usually went away again, but this one was different the people set up camp and gave them fish and gifts , the aborigines were confused but the elders thought they may be reincarnations of the ancestors and so they would be treated with respect , then one day the elders were invited to board the big canoe , it was while on board they saw turtles in the galley , they asked for one but were refused , this angered the people because they were used to sharing, members of the clan would attack the intruders ,but a bullet was fired into one of the aborigine’s leg which bled , they had never seen such powerful invisible magic they put down there spears and a wary truce was made , Cook then realised he had been wrong in not sharing . But after 47 days the big canoe sailed away. It was to be another 102 years before a white man set foot in the area again in 1873, and this was a chap by the name of Mulligan who discovered gold in the Palmer river , the steamer Leichardt anchored offshore and miners swarmed ashore . It was not long before a small community took shape with tents and shanties forming the new Cook town , within 6 months the population had reached 4,000 , however with the decline of gold the population decreased to 400 , but since 1949 has been growing at a steady pace and now stands at 3,000. The harbour area remains much the same as when Cook was here ,it is absolutely charming. Here the aborigines talk to you , there is a feeling of community , we were talking to a couple who live here she is aboriginal he was from Eton , they have four children , who say they are pomarigiones, and 2 grandchildren, there are lots of families like this and they all get along. We loved it here , the camp site was perfect , the view from the van would have cost a fortune in an hotel, sand ,sea ,palm trees and mountains. It was here I found my first cocoanut that had fallen from the tree , I cracked it open and drank the milk.
From here we went to the Endeavour Falls , the road was dirt and very rough ,the swimming hole was full of children, we decided we should now begin our journey south , this was as high as we could go safely. First stop was mount Malloy , we had to back track on places we had already passed through there was no other road , we drifted into the table lands swam in lake Eacham near Yungaburra, visited the devils boulders , people were swimming here also but we had been on the road all day and went to set up camp, tonight we went to a Chinese restaurant, on returning to the camp site I went to the toilet and you’ll never guess what was there ? A lady from Toowoomba , she had bedded down as they had arrived late having been on the road all day and she didn’t feel inclined to put her tent up. No need to revise the toilet schedule. So on to Innesfail, this town had been destroyed in the 1920’s and rebuilt in art deco style the buildings are stunning. We were told if we headed out of the town towards the coast and nursery we would definitely see a cassowary , we saw the signs , slow down cassowary crossing , I made David stop the van, ‘’but why’’ I informed him we would stay here until one crossed after all we had nothing spoiling. After an hour we drove on, we reached the coast and turned around, Then driving back we saw one , he is a big bird with attitude , he looks evil, it was amazing we were beside ourselves, we have several pictures, which I shall endeavour to put on the blog.( I usually run out of air time.)The adult cassowary stands up to2 metres tall and weighs about 38 kilograms, there are only about 1500 left in the wild ,besides its impressive size it has glossy black plumage, a brilliant red and blue neck, it has a casque on its head which is delicate and easily damaged, although shy they defend their territory or young , they can leap into the air kicking with the dagger like inner claw , this claw can be up to120mm long. They have primitive and inefficient digestive systems which digest only the outer flesh of fruits ,they excrete the seeds , they are the only native animal capable of dispersing the seeds of trees with large fruits and are considered of keystone importance to plant communities . Their eggs are olive green and incubated by the males for 50 days , he then takes sole responsibility for raising the chicks which takes about 12 months. ( I shall be asking questions on this when I get home to see if you have been taking it in, maybe I will do a quiz night!!!))
We are now headed inland , we have visited 3 waterfalls and are now at Millaa Millaa where we are on a powered site and last night we spotted a tree Kangaroo , it looked kind of strange a kangaroo in a tree, but cute. We told the Dutch family camped next to us and they were thrilled , they come from southern Holland near the Belgian border. David is on laundry duty, he has yet to actually get the washing into a machine, the owner of the site has heard about the kangaroo and has asked him to let her know if we spot it again as there are others on the site who have never seen one, he is now talking to an old boy. This afternoon we will visit the Millaa Millaa falls and maybe have a swim in the pool at the bottom ,then back here on tree kangaroo spotting duty, I notice the stores are down and will have to find a butcher , can’t think what to make with a fresh pineapple three sweet corns and two avocadoes. Will post this as soon as we hit another hot spot. Today is 13th November.

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