Cairns and Daintree area

Continuing. . . The sky rail was a nice experience. The views were really spectacular, I must say. At the top, we raced through the village of Kuranda to see the butterfly sanctuary for about 20 minutes before heading off on our Rainforestation tour. The Rainforestation was fairly tourist-y but still interesting, particularly the army duck (amphibious vehicle from WWII) ride. We had an excellent tour guide which made our day. Not only was he very funny, but he was extremely knowledgeable. We learned that Daintree is a tropical rainforest, getting around 3 metres of rain per year. That's close to 10 feet! Also, many medical drugs we use are derived in part from rainforest plants. We learned about epiphytes and termites and saw some pretty nasty rainforest plants with barbs and hooks - useful for a vine trying to climb up a tree but not so pleasant for someone walking through the brush. We also learned about how the aboriginals ate plants that we would consider poisonous, even containing cyanide. Our guide seemed to think they ate what they could and developed immunity over time. I also saw the largest spider I've ever seen in the wild right there on the army duck dock. It was a golden orb weaver with a body and head about 6 inches long. I don't even want to venture a guess as to dimensions including leg span. . . She was enormous!!!! I took a photo but kept a healthy distance, even though I know these spiders are not aggressive or deadly. Still. . . .

That was Wednesday. Thursday, we went on a snorkelling tour of the Great Barrier Reef, but I'll wait until we get the photos back for that entry. I'm not even sure how the photos came out; we used throw away underwater cameras. An experiment.

Friday, we drove up to the Daintree Rainforest Discovery Centre. It was a really beautiful drive and we got to take a small ferry across the Daintree River. I guess they haven't gotten around to building a bridge yet? I think we heard that this road to Cape Tribulation was only 50 years old. The Centre itself was very informative and interesting. They have boardwalks and stairways set up to allow you to see all levels of the rainforest. We learned about the diversity of plant and animal species in this rainforest, cassowaries, and more.

On the way back to Cairns, we stopped at Mossman Gorge, which is also in the Daintree National Park. It was pretty crowded and for good reason - it has a great swimming hole and a beautiful hiking circuit. Four members of our family braved the icy cold waters while the one sensible member stood on the bank and took photos. We could only hike a short way on the circuit since it was starting to get dark by the time everybody was out of the water and dried off. The only disappointment of the day was that we didn't get to see a real-life cassowary in the wild. However, we did get to see brush turkeys at the gorge. That was a consolation. (Uh, yeah.)

I just have to add that sugarcane seems to be the main crop in the area. We also saw a field of banana trees and a pasture of brahman-looking cows.