The Rainforest in Far North Queensland

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The drive up to Daintree National park wasn't a long one... but it certainly was interesting. Once we cleared the gazillion roundabouts leaving Cairns the road stuck to the ocean like white on rice. The sun decided to come out a bit and the views were spectacular even when driving. But the sun only lasted for three quarters of an hour, so that as soon as we crossed the cable ferry to the National Park we had to turn our headlights on and drive about 30 km/h in the torrential rain. The road became very skinny and very wet, very quickly. We even crossed our first floodway. We weren't sure Janis (our van) was up to it. But when we saw a little Holden car cross we new she could do it.

We got to our campsite afraid to leave the van for all the rain, so decided to take a driving tour of the park to scope out hikes for the next day. We hadn't gone very far at all when we saw a Casowary by the side of the road. We were flabbergasted! We were hoping to spot one of these strange birds, but they are so rare that we didn't get our hopes up. But there he was in all his Jurassic glory, staring at Janis and her flowers. I got as many photos as I could, inwardly swearing at the guy who stole our good camera back in Italy.

The second day the rain hadn't slowed. So I bought one of those plastic rain jackets that looks like a full body condom, not wanting the weather to ruin our experience... it is a rainforest after all! We walked along many of the boardwalks in the park, learning about many strange species of flora and fauna via the informational placards plastered all over the place. But the real highlight of the day was finding Myall beach. It looked like a scene from 'Survivor' or 'Jurassic Park'. We found some coconuts and pretended to be living off the land. We were surprised when one of the coconuts we were bashing against a rock actually opened. So we sat on some rocks and ate coconuts for lunch. We even took some with us for later. At the end of the day we sat in the van, relatively wet and cold. We warmed up with some of the hot chocolate Lauretta (Alex's mom) gave us at Christmas.

The next day we left early to stop at a couple of the lookout points on the way back to Cairns. As soon as we left the rainforest the rain seemed to stop. So the southerly drive started out nicely. We stopped in Cairns to say 'goodbye ]forever' (hopefully not) to the Munich Boys before buying some much needed supplies for our trip into the Atherton Tablelands.

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Photos

Daintree National Park
Welcome to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Site!

Daintree National Park
A tea plantation

Daintree National Park
We saw a Casowary in the wild! This was our wildlife viewing goal ever since we first saw one at the Australia Zoo.

Daintree National Park
One of only 4 left in the Cooper's Creek area

Daintree National Park
Jay in her body condom rain jacket

Daintree National Park
An old fig tree in the jungle. The forests in the tropics are unbelievably dense with many different varieties of trees, shrubs and plants

Daintree National Park
Ferns and other jungle plant species

Daintree National Park
The boardwalk that went all through the park to prevent erosion and keep people on the trail

Daintree National Park
There were Mangroves lining the river. Check out the buttress roots on this tree, it looks like snakes on the ground

Daintree National Park
The Daintree River

Daintree National Park
We walked to Myall Beach, right next to Cape Tribulation, and found coconuts

Daintree National Park
Now how the heck to we crack these things?

Daintree National Park
Ahhh, good technique!

Daintree National Park
Fresh coconut milk

Daintree National Park
We took the insides back to camp and added it our curry. We also grabbed some extras for a future Piña Colada experiment

Daintree National Park
A future coconut palm. Too bad these palms are invasive species and not indigenous to the area

Daintree National Park
A good viewpoint showing where the Daintree River meets the ocean

Daintree National Park
Jay and the lush jungle canopy below

Daintree National Park
The Daintree River from the cable barge that separates the National Park from civilization