The Daintree Rainforest

Bright and early Sunday morning, we boarded two coaches and took off for the Daintree Rainforest. After about 2 hours, we moved from the coaches onto a boat for a cruise down the Daintree River. Our purpose: to see crocodiles in the wild.

The pressure was off almost immediately as our guide checked a bank that has been frequented by Fang, an adult female croc, and sure enough, she was there. The guides radio each other when a croc has been discovered, so Fang was well photographed today. Amazingly, our guide spotted a baby crocodile on a branch or root just above the water’s surface. More photos. And then we were alerted to the presence of a third crocodile by another boat. This one was in classic pose – snout and eyes just above the water.

There are years when no crocs are seen at all, so we were fortunate. As a result, we heard less about the mangroves. These are trees that line the tidal shores of tropical Australia. The Daintree River has 30 of 39 species of mangroves. At low tide, the complex root system of the tree is exposed. These roots provide protection for small fish when the tide is in. The roots also trap soil runoff, filtering the water. One of our last stops of the day was at a beach at low tide. The roots of the mangroves were exposed, and the patterns were intricate and beautiful.

Our guides took the coaches across the river on a ferry and collected us at the end of our cruise. We took an hour long boardwalk hike in the rainforest with the goal of seeing a cassowary in the wild. In 8 years, Charlie has seen just one cassowary in the wild. Our guide had a report of a sighting, so we were on the alert. The cassowary is endangered; less than 800 exist in the wild. They spread the seeds of about 430 species throughout the rainforest. Sixteen of these will germinate only if they pass through the digestive tract of a cassowary. So, if cassowaries die out, these plants will also die out.

However, we did not see a cassowary on our hike. We did see more basket ferns, my favorite epiphyte. An epiphyte lives on another tree without harming it. We also saw several strangler figs; they do in fact harm the trees, sending more and more roots down the tree until the tree is encased and strangled. Wait a While vines are thorny and will snag you or your clothes if you brush up against them. To free yourself, you don’t pull yourself away; you stop moving and you…wait a while. The vine releases you. Eventually these young vines become rattan cane. Palms, ferns, vines- too many to list were identified by our guide, Finn. He showed us an unsuccessful incubation mound. A male scrub fowl had piled up some dirt and leaves to impress the ladies, but his was not chosen. Later in the day we saw a mound that did result in eggs being laid; it was huge, built up into a little hill about 4 feet tall.

On to a lunch of steak and salads. This rivaled our reef cruise lunch. We popped back into our coaches and within minutes found cassowaries! A female and her chick were pecking about in a small clearing. The other coach was called back, and we moved on…to another cassowary! This one was sighted by a couple of students on our coach. She slipped behind a tree now and then, but everyone was able to get pictures.

Our next stop was at Emmagen Creek. The plan was to have the students swim in the fresh-water creek with no worries of crocs or jellies. However, the creek bed is very rocky and the creek is shallow, so they could sit and let the water run over them, but that was about it. Our guides cut up 6 types of fruit – bananas, pineapple, papaya, custard apple, mamey sapote,and dragon fruit. We all tried a bit of each. Finn brewed tea bush style, boiling water in a can and then swinging it in a circle to get the leaves to sink. Remember swinging buckets of water in such a way so as to keep the water in the bucket? That’s what he was doing.

Back into the coaches and on to ice cream! As we pulled into the lot of the shop, we saw a…yes, you guessed it: our 4th cassowary! We got out of the coach for this one, and she headed straight for us. Cassowaries can be dangerous – they have a sharp middle claw – so we were careful and moved out of her path. There was a lot of good-natured “Endangered, my foot!” going on, but we all realized how incredibly lucky we’d been today: 3 crocs and 4 cassowaries.

We had the stop at the beach I mentioned earlier, and then a scenic view stop. It was nearly 7:00 when we returned to the hotel. Although we have done more walking than this on other outings, Charlie and I were exhausted – and not hungry. No dinner tonight.

Tomorrow is a free day, and then we fly to Alice Springs. Internet access will be non-existent when we are camping, Thursday through Saturday.