On awakening, I realized I had left a screen door open last night. The good news: only one insect flew in, as far as I could tell. We rousted, cleaned up and went to breakfast. The river was not only down, it was remarkably clear – total difference from yesterday. On the way back to our cottage I noticed a new plant…
I’m beginning to wonder if this trip is going to inspire me to pay more attention to identifying the species in our yard.
Dana did a shortened version of the yoga class (which she really likes) and we went out to meet David, our FNQ Nature Tours driver/guide for our 7hr Daintree Rainforest experience. A reminder that this is the world’s oldest rainforest. It was still raining off and on, but we decided to chance it,
First leg was a little cruise on the Daintree River, which runs through the Rainforest. We boarded a little craft with another David who owns a Daintree River cruise company that TripAdvisor rates as the best. The boat was remarkable for being battery driven, and thus wonderfully quiet, moving through the water. It was also covered, fortunately, because the rain kept coming.
Both Davids kept up a constant chatter about the rainforest and river history. David had a spotting laser, and although the rain kept the animal movement down, we did see a lot of kingfishers, my favorite being the Sacred Kingfisher…
and we also saw an Olive-backed sunbird…
a White-lipped Tree Frog…
and a 6’ Common Tree Snake.
But the big story on the Daintree River is Saltwater Crocodiles, and we learned a lot from the two Davids, one of the most interesting facts being the discovery of evolutionary kinship between crocs and birds e.g. shown in egg nesting and care.
We did see some babies who had recently left the nest…
a young female (named Sandy because she likes to hang out on sandy banks)…
a large male named Nick…
whose wide body, David (the croc guy) said, was all muscle.
And we saw an adult female, Scuter (so named for the missing scutes on her bag, done as a poor means of identifying her).
Nick and Scuter have recently been conjugating on this little side stream entrance to the river, despite this being the domain of Scarface, a huge alpha male, who apparently is allowing it to happen. No shortage of soap operas among the local croc community apparently, according to the Davids.
Our last sighting was of a youngish croc, as of yet of indeterminate gender – not an easy task, Scuter was misidentified for years before she laid some eggs.
After the river we went for lunch at the Daintree Teahouse, obscurely embedded in the rainforest, up an almost unnoticeable road.
A sizable tour group soon joined us and Richard, one of the owners, gave a lengthy, informative, and humorous talk on the wonderful variety of fruits and veggies included in the truly unique dishes they served, showing samples and giving extensive backgrounds on each, including where they originated and how they spread. Looking out of the open side I saw this plant…
which my Picture This app identified as a Blushing Philodendron.
We moved on into the National Park to the Mossman River Gorge, for a hike up into it that started on metal walkways…
and moved on into a rather rough 2k trail.
Because of the rain, we weren’t about to see a lot of wildlife, so David adapted, with an excellent running narrative on the ancient history, the flora and fauna in the park and their origins, and the Aboriginal side of everything. He was an excellent guide and knew his stuff for the area – like a team of high school teachers – he looked one, don’t think he was.
I took a lot of vertical pics, due to the imposing height of so many trees, although some of the shorter ones were far older, just slower growing.
We used the umbrellas off and on, as the rain was intermittent. They were a nuisance: getting caught on branches, ruining each other’s view when we stopped, awkward shape and weight, but they did work well as hiking polls when clamped closed, so that’s what we did the most. Actually they were superfluous for me because I was as wet from sweat as I would get by walking in the rain.
When we got back to the lodge, after showering I put all of our day’s clothes in a dryer during dinner – such an excellent amenity.
We spent a fair amount of time prepping for our snorkel trip before turning in.
Dana and Roger Travels 