A Walk Through the Tropics

Today began with a morning much like any nice summer morning on Whidbey Island... about 21 deg. C. ... getting up to around 27 deg. C. (you do the math, my brain is full). Oops! It is winter here just north of Cairns... balmy, wouldn't you say? After all, we are just 17 deg. Lat. south of the equator.

Dave here again... So we set out on a drive north (toward the equator) to spend some time in the Daintree Rainforest. The drive began with views of wonderful curving coastline. Eventually the road took us a bit more inland to a crossing of the Daintree River on an old and small cable-driven ferry - the kind that reels itself across the smallish river by pulling itself along a fixed steel cable. We hit the "rush hour" and had to wait in line for a couple of ferry circuits until our turn came... maybe 50 minutes. (Did I say this is a smallish river?) The drive continued up and into a soft soaking rain. (Did I say this is a rainforest?) Expert planners that we are, we left all umbrellas back at home near Sydney, so we purchased thin and cheap plastic ponchos for $3 Aus each. No sooner than we had begun our tour of the rainforest via the "boardwalk" pathways lifting us off the forest floor than the rain quit! However, the humidity stayed with us all the way through the walking tour.

The electronically guided tour was amazing and very interesting. Becky and I agree that one highlight was climbing the 70-ft tower that took us through the various ecosystems at each level right up to the forest canopy. We learned heaps about the very complex ecosystem but had barely scratched the surface before we needed to move on. If you have ever been to the Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula... that is a temperate rain forest with many familiar evergreen trees like firs and cedars, etc. The Daintree Rain Forest is a TROPICAL rain forest with much denser foliage and more in the way of palms and many other plants and animals that make up an amazing ecosystem.

Curious factoid:  One animal in the Daintree is the Cassowary, a large flightless bird about 5-6 feet tall.  They eat fruit, nuts and other things that ripen and fall to the forest floor.  Some of the large softball-sized fruits they swallow whole, including a blue one that is poisonous to any other animal that might eat it.  Then - here's the fun part - when they poop, the large seeds are excreted whole (in the poop) and the plants are thus propagated across the forest!  The large seeds would never "fall" very far from the mother tree without this unique delivery system.  (The same kind of thing happens frequently with smaller seeds and flying birds, too.)

On our way back down from the Daintree we also stopped at Mossman Gorge to hike into a less wet and still very humid section of the Daintree. That stop included another hike along a "boardwalk" made of steel in most places for some very nice views of the Mossman River tumbling over huge boulders and forming some popular swimming "holes" crowded with winter break school children and families.

Back at the hotel in the evening we all went out to restaurants of our choice for a nice dinner. Becky and I walked down the beach-front street to eat at "The Rising Sun." We had a delicious meal of grilled Spanish mackerel, served by a waitress with a distinctly American accent. Turns out she is from Federal Way and is working her way around the world! Small world, indeed!
   

Viewpoint in the rain forest.  The Daintree River flows into the sea in the background.

Lunch at the interpretive center before hiking on the "boardwalk" (steel grating) through the rain forest.

Looking upward through the forest...

... and looking downward to the forest floor... if you can see it!

See the leafy vine trying to make its way upward by attaching to the larger tree?
Everything in the rain forest is trying to reach upward to get more sunlight.

At the top of the viewing tower Becky is looking across the rainforest canopy.  We could see some birds and butterflies.

Surprise!!!