Excursion to a Tropical Rainforest

Brett, naturalist guide

Ryan, Cheryl & Gary from Canada

I spent a full day in and around the Daintree River and its tropical rainforest north of Cairns. A wonderfully congenial group of 13 of us, led by Brett, our naturalist guide, learned about the World Heritage Tropical Rainforest.

Tomesh from Holland

Highlights of the day:

- a rare sighting of a female cassowary, a large flightless bird that is native to the rainforests of New Guinea and Australia. This bird is about the size of an emu but with brilliant blue, purple and red coloring.

Rare sighting of a Cassowary

- an equally rare sighting of 2 Boyd's forest dragon lizards. Both lizards were seen clinging to tree trunks.

- a river cruise on the Daintree River (no crocodile sightings, though)

Daintree Rainforest

- the chance to hand-feed several wallabies with slices of sweet potato

- steak cooked on the "barbie" (barbecue)

Feeding sweet potato to Wallabies

- a look at Cape Tribulation in Daintree National Park. Captain James Cook first landed in Australia in 1770 at Botany Bay and claimed the land for England. As he continued north from what is now Sydney along the coast toward Great Barrier Reef, his ship The Endeavor scraped a reef and he was forced to spend two months repairing the damage. Cape Tribulation was so named by Captain Cook because this is where all his troubles began.

Billy Tea Safaris

http://www.billytea.com.au/

A note about the weather: November is usually the beginning of the rainy season in the tropical rainforest, but not so far. We've had blue skies and hot, sunny days for all four days of my trip in the Cairns vicinity. Because of that, mosquitos and jellyfish have not been a problem, happy to say.