Where the Rainforest meets the Reef

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23/11/06 - 24/11/06 Cape Tribulation

We headed North from Cairns for an overnight stay in the rainforest of Cape Tribulation. Their tourist motto is “Where the rainforest meets the reef” and it’s certainly true, with the forest coming right down to the beaches and even into the water.

Our first stop en route was at the Daintree Wildlife Centre where we both held a baby Roo/Wallaby (I can’t actually remember what it was, but it was incredibly cute!) and I found myself with a parrot on my head. We also spied green tree frogs, salt-water crocodiles and those unusually dangerous birds - the cassowary.

Our next stop was a mangrove walk, where we spotted archer fish and ‘mighty mouths’ in the water, obviously named for their huge mouths, and on the land, beautiful fan palms and strangling fig vines. The sunlight coming down through the forest canopy in rays was beautiful.

Our accommodation was a wooden cabin just meters from the beach, set amongst the forest. Walking along the beach in the evening, we watched the tiny crabs cover the entire area of sand with small sandy balls as they dug out little homes.

In our taxi after dinner we spotted a bandicoot and then had to stop for an amethystine python stretched out across the whole road. The taxi driver wiggled its tail until it slinked off into the forest, whist I jumped in for photos.

In the morning we rented mountain bikes and cycled to the ‘Bat House’ to see the fruit bats. Allegedly bats make up 1/3 of all mammals on the planet ?!

The last part of our trip was an hour’s cruise on the Daintree River. We spotted a 3.5-meter croc on the river bank, just above it’s mudslide. Further down the river an amethystine python was curled up in a tree underneath a huge colony of fruit bats. We saw 2 beautiful birds: a Snake-necked darter and a female shining flycatcher and found a stow-away on our boat - a white-lipped green tree frog, sneaking behind my rucksack on the seat next to us.

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Photos

Jen and the baby roo
...or was it a wallaby?

Marine stingers
...with Vinegar bottle to avoid the need for peeing on each other!

Our stow-away
White lipped green tree frog

Wild figs
Growing in the Daintree

Comments

[..fish..]

On Fruit Bats
Oh, Matt, what a gorgeous little fruit bat! Just like the one in your book - remember it? So ... er ... did you get to kiss this one as well? ..fish..