Great Barrier Reef –
Check and Oldest Rainforest in the world – Check!
We went on our trip up
to Cape Tribulation for 3 days – we got picked up from our hostel
and the coach took us two hours up the coast. We did a bit of a small
rainforest tour and learnt about different plant species and animals
that lived there and we also got to go on a crocodile cruise, we only
saw a couple of crocs, not as many as we saw in Darwin, but we did
get to see a tiny baby crocodile which was as small as a water dragon
lizard. After this we were taken to out accommodation which was 50km
from the nearest town. We were about a minute from the beach, which
was gorgeous, especially when it wasn't raining as you could see the
colours of the reef when the sun was shining which was turquoise
blue. On our second day was a day we could do what we wanted, so we
for a long walk over the beach and into the rainforest to find a
water hole. There were two creeks near to where we were staying which
sometimes had crocodiles coming down them during mating season, which
it was, so we had to be extra careful. We eventually found the water
hole where we had a swim and Matt had a go on the rope swing too, the
water was so clear so you would see all the fish, which kept
following us around trying to work out what we were.
We started to walk back
towards the hostel and went on the Dubuji Board walk through the
rainforest, which we thought we would have a look at. Dubuji is an
aboriginal word meaning 'Place of Spirits'. We saw lots of different
types of trees and mangroves, we saw some Scrub Fowl which look a bit
like hens, you always see them in pairs because they are partners for
life, if you don't see them together you will always hear them
calling out to each other when they are going out to find food, we
know this as our tour guide on the journey up to Cape Tribulation was
an animal expert (Hippy) She also told us about the regions most
famous resident, the elusive and endangered Cassowary, It is the size
of a grown man and resembles an ostrich, has claws that can literally
rip a humans chest open if it needs to defend itself and is scared of
nothing. Our guide said to be submissive if we were fortunate enough
to see one, of course nobody on the return journey to Cairns on our
bus reported any confrontations with a Cassowary, apart from, you
guessed it, us.
After seeing the scrub
fowl, which was nice enough, Laurie went round a tree and froze (not
a rare occurrence as she has the tendency to set fire works off and
evacuate at the sight of a green ant) however this time she had good
cause, it was a Cassowary, about the same height as me (Matt) and
walking towards us feeding, so of course I put the guides advise into
action and stayed still, It came closer and I turned to make sure
Laurie was OK and guess what, Gone, yep she gently and calmly left me
there to negotiate with a Cassowary, to make matters worse who should
come round the corner, it's chick, the one thing that can make it
even more unpredictable, to cut a long story short it came right up
to me and eye balled me, yes I was terrified, and then after a few
moments it declared me a top geezer and carried on about it's
business, of course we now know that as well as being quite
aggressive and intimidating, the Cassowary is a cracking judge of
character. Oh and I did eventually get Laurie to return and
apprehensively watch this amazing animal, whilst shaking of course.
