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Published: October 15th 2008
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Early Sunday morning we boarded a small bus for Cape Tribulation, about 4 hours north of Cairns. The weather looked quite gloomy for the first time. I was really excited to be going up into the “tropical north,” to see the magical rainforests I had been dreaming about. The trip included some minor commentary from our bus driver, stops in the Daintree National Park (a World Heritage site), and 2 nights accommodation at PK’s Jungle Village. We took a small boat up the Daintree River, where crocodiles are often spotted, but the river was too high for us to see any this time. The river is wide and muddy and is flanked by thick vegetation. We saw a couple of tree snakes and some beautiful blue kingfishers. Before we got up to the Cape, our guide led us along a small boardwalk and explained some of the common plants there.
Shortly after checking in at PK’s Jungle Village, the rain started coming down. Apparently it had been clear weather before that day. It was definitely a different setting, We were surrounded by ancient rainforest on all sides, and there was a feeling of quiet. It was hot and wet.
PK’s has varying levels of accommodation, including campsites, but we stayed in small dorm-style cabins. It was the perfect setting to find a funnel-web spider under your toilet seat or something. I found the place to be really hypocritical, because although there were signs everywhere reminding you to be eco-conscious, they didn’t have recycling bins and forced you to buy your own plastic dishware and utensils. Cristina and I were exhausted from not sleeping the night before and went to bed around 3:30. During the night the rain bucketed down hard. Most of the next day we spent hiding from the intermittent rain and reading/writing, then finally ventured out to do a walk. Cape Trib seems to be a great place to just hang out and feel close to nature, although it’s also a great base for all the adventurous activities the area is famous for, like exploring the reef, “jungle surfing,” sky diving, etc. The beach is only a couple minutes away, and there were several nice walks around the area. There were few people anywhere.
The forest really felt somewhat menacing to me, not dangerous, just demanding caution. It just reminded me that Nature is not warm
and cuddly. I thought it was good that the forest has dangerous animals like cassowaries, crocodiles, and snakes, because it prevents people from going around and messing things up. The cassowary is the most dangerous bird in the world apparently; it grows up to two meters in height and can disembowel a person by standing on one leg and slicing down with the talons of the other. Supposedly it is only aggressive when protecting its young, but if you run away, its natural response is to chase you.
For that evening we had booked a guided night walk in the rainforest. Our guide Ian was super knowledgeable and generally gave us too much information about everything. The forest was just buzzing all around us-hundreds of different noises at the same time. The rainforest of Northern Queensland is the oldest rainforest in the world and is home to over 1800 species of trees, which is more than in the Amazon. Every stage of the evolution of plant life has a living representative living in that rainforest. Although the forest covers only one percent of Australia’s landmass, it contains well over fifty percent of Australia’s species. We saw two Boyd’s
forest dragons, an orange-thighed green tree frog, fireflies, glowing fungi, sleeping jungle fowl, green ants, strangler fig trees, jungle apples, and a couple of other frogs. The most amazing thing was the glowing cyanobacteria. Any time we stopped, turned off our flashlights, and allowed our eyes to adjust to the dark, we could see the ground, or branches or mushrooms glowing in the dark. I tried to get the basic idea behind the glowing…hopefully it’s something along the lines of what I wrote: Fungi that help to decompose plant matter contain cyanobacteria or blue-green algae, which are responsible for the glowing. The cyanobacteria is also what causes the fireflies to glow. Tiny snails and slugs feed on the fungi, and the fireflies, which are actually beetles, lay their eggs in the area so that their young can feed on the snails/slugs. Male fireflies attract females by doing little light displays.
The walk was surprisingly long, we got back to PK’s about two hours after we left, so it was definitely worth the money. Unfortunately, the stupid hotel/hostel thing closes its kitchen at 8:30, and closes its café around the same time, so Cristina and I were left without
"Wait-a-while"
More commonly known as rattan, one of the longest plants in the forest, the vines are covered in small spines that cling to anything. Aboriginal people used the vines to fish. dinner. We had to settle for diet coke and a packet of crisps….bleghhhh grumble grumble.
Tuesday morning we woke up early, checked out, got thoroughly rained on again, and went for another walk. On our drive back to Cairns we stopped at Alexandra Lookout, Mossman Gorge and Port Douglas. Mossman Gorge is a popular and beautiful swimming spot in the middle of the forest. The river was a bit high and it was a bit cold so we didn’t swim. Port Douglas is a touristy resort town that didn’t make much of an impression on me in the thirty minutes we spent there. The main street itself looks fairly decent, but the majority of Port Douglas is oversized resort hotels, golf courses, and frivolous African date palms.
Back in Cairns, after securing our tickets for the East Coast trip and having a last free meal at the Woolshed, we settled in to wait for our 12;25 Greyhound bus at McDonald’s. I was excited at the prospect of driving through Australia, and was rewarded when I woke up the next morning. I saw dry fields with shrub and eucalyptus trees and felt like it was such a
familiar and comforting sight. We were headed for Airlie Beach, the base for our Whitsunday Islands adventures!
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