Port Douglas - Nature Adventure Part 2

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One of our adventures was a half day into Mossman Gorge. Even though we were there at the end of the dry season, the river/streams were flowing steadily.

Mossman Gorge has been a popular spot for years, but parking and fascilities were near non-existant until a couple of months back. The local Aboriginal people have built a huge carpark, and then run a shuttle bus up to the palk walkway entrance. Visitors can do one of several self guided walks, or there are now escorted tours where the Aboriginal Guide will tell of their tribal past in this very picturesque valley.

Everytime we go out and about we see something really fascinating in the bush. On this walk we came accross a male scrub turkey building a nest for his beloved. The bigger the nest mound, the higher up the chick picking order! Anyway, the size of the leaf mould nest is important as this is the incubator for the eggs which will be burried below the surface, out of sight of preditors.

Mr Turkey was virtually trance like as he scraped up leaves and swished them behind him to build the nest. He took no notice of me or my camera - his focus was singular - build the nest.

In each rainforest there is a different mix of trees, lichens, fungii etc, so the couple of hours it took to walk the circuit through the gorge went very quickly. The diversity of creation always amazes. Trees, animals, lizards and birds, each specie having little variations that make them unique and able to survive in their current location. In this forest there is little food for mamels or marsupials, but the bird life kept us craning upwards trying to see who was calling.

The new Park Centre is just getting underway serving meals and selling artwork and souvineers. Looks very good with quality fascilities. Support these people - they deserve it.

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Photos

Mossman River
Babbles over rocky river bed.

Mr Turkey
Only one thing on his mind!

Butterfly Poses on rock
Cruiser Butterfly

Mossman Gorge river
Gentle flow now, but reacts quickly to tropical rain.

Great swimming hole
But caution needs to be exercised

Sandy Pool
Water was trickling out of the rock face into this very clean clear pool.

Textured Roots
Very stylish root systems on many of these trees. The soil is shallow and of poor quality here, so roots go for miles.

A shelter place
We looked for aboriginal art here, but if it has been here it has been eraised .

Tree with fruit/nuts growing from trunk
Not sure about this tree - could be a native mahogany.

Halloween in the forest
Not quite, but this growth on the side of the tree had that spooky look!

Fungi
So many varieties in this forest alone.

Water Catchers
This series of fungi were catching droplets of water in their saucer like tops.

Great coloured fungi
Sorry that this is a little out of focus

More fungi
growing on the end of a rotting log.