Hi everyone,
I thought I would tell you about our trip up to the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. This area has been flooded on and off over the past week or so, but it was fine when we went to visit…… it did rain, but it is a rain forest so I guess that is to be expected.
We had to cross the Daintree River on a vehicular ferry which cost $21.00 for a return trip with our car. The swallows were really cool to watch as they duck and wove around the ferry as we made the crossing.
We went for lots of walks through the rainforest, but the walks were almost always on boardwalks – you can imagine how impossible it would be to walk through the forest here as it is so dense and wet. The Daintree forest covers an area of about 1200 square kilometers stretching from the Daintree River to Cooktown. It is really amazing. It is one of the most complex tropical ecosystems on earth and is estimated to be between 150 and 200 million years old. From a total of 19 primitive flowering plant families on earth, 12 of them are found in the Daintree. There is magnificent scenery, mountain ranges, fast flowing streams, waterfalls, deep gorges, dense rainforest plus beautiful white sandy beaches and reefs along the shore line.
We went to the Daintree Discovery Center where we did lots of walks and climbed a 6 storey tower in the centre of the forest. Along the way we had an audio guide that you could listen to information about the rainforest, it’s plants, birds and animals at each numbered spot. You could even plug in a number to listen to various bird calls, and check to see which bird you were listening to. In the information center in the middle there were displays and documentaries on all sorts of topics like: climate change, dinosaurs, local animals and plants and aboriginal culture in the area. I liked to watch them too.
Mum really wanted to see a Cassawary in the wild – but we didn’t, however we did see a Wompoo Pigeon, and a Torrisean Imperial Pigeon and that was cool.
On our way back to the ferry we stopped at the Daintree icecream company where they grow the fruits to make some pretty unique icecream flavours. We had tubs with four flavours in:
Wattle seed
Sourfruit
Mango, Banana & guava
And Raspberry.
Both mum and dad liked the wattleseed best because they said it tasted like coffee – I didn’t really like it much.
Hope everyone is well, I am still having a really good time but I am looking forward to seeing everyone again soon. Thanks to Piper, Charlotte and Chelsey for sending a message to me on the blog
Bye
Ethan
