The Daintree to Charters Towers

(Am catching up with a number of posts all at the same time beginning with "More Cairns.")

From Cairns we headed further north into a region called The Daintree, where the rainforest is even more pronounced. When on our drives, we have been stopping for coffee at mid morning, often in spots where the view is spectacular. Interesting in this shot is the cloudy, sandy nature of the water at the shore. This was probably caused by cyclone Nathan's passing over and through this region--the same cyclone that caused our planned snorkeling adventure on the Franklin Islands to be canceled. As we continued onward over the next several days, Nathan did a loop and passed over this region for a second time, bringing more heavy rain and wind. (We had left the area by then.)

At one point, we needed to use a car ferry to cross a river.

One of the places we stopped is called the Daintree Discovery Centre. A couple of good places to learn more are here (great photos; see their Gallery link) and here (this is the place we visited). One nice thing about the Discovery Centre is that it is not an enclosed park. Rather, it is merely a set of aerial walkways, towers, and boardwalks in the existing rainforest.

There are many cassowary roaming around this area, and we did see one with a chick. It is the males that hatch and care for the young. Here is a photo of one we saw at the Australia Zoo earlier. The one we saw at the Discovery Centre was moving too fast.

If you look closely, you can see a part of the tower you can climb to look out over the canopy of the rainforest. I enjoyed getting up there, even though it was quite a number of steps.

I didn't much like finding this at one of the landings along my climb.

One of the epiphytic trees we saw was a Strangler Fig" which you can see curled all around its host tree. Except for using the host to prop itself up, the Strangler Fig would seem not to cause much harm. Later we saw an exception.

This is the exception we saw on a different walk. The host here has died and disappeared, leaving only the Strangler Fig behind.

I previously remarked about all the amazing plants and trees. Flowers are more prevalent at other times, but we have seen several remarkable examples.

I liked this green vine growing tight to the trunk of one tree.

Further into The Daintree, we stopped at Cape Tribulation, where the explorer Captain Cook once had to anchor to do some ship repairs. Here is something you see at beaches along the coast where the Great Barrier Reef exists. Vinegar is an important remedy for jellyfish stings, so supplies of it are sometimes available.

We stayed out of the water.

Our accommodations for the night were not unlike the tented room we had back when we visited Kings Canyon. However, I would say this one was a bit rougher, and with the humidity and close conditions of the rainforest, we felt somewhat closed in.

The bed came complete with a mosquito net, though I'm not sure it was necessary. I haven't had much trouble with mosquitoes here, and I am typically a good barometer for same. I did eliminate a ginormous spider that was in our cabin before we went to bed, however.

The next day we started our drive away from the coast and the rainforest and towards the Queensland outback. As we made our way, the forest density diminished (and eventually disappeared completely), and temperatures rose dramatically. We were heading back to terrain and weather conditions not unlike those we had experienced near Uluru. Very frequently along the way, we saw these enormous termite mounds.

Murray knew of one area where a unique memorial to World War II soldiers had been established. I found one marker related to attachment of Australian troops to a US heavy bombardment group.

Out here we very frequently saw wild emu and kangaroos.

There was lots of open grazing too, and we saw many herds of the brahman breed that does so well out there.

Charters Towers was our stay for the night. Its history is strongly connected to gold mining. This exchange was a part of that mining history. There is lots of mining in Australia of all kinds of metals and gems.

In the outback, there are lots of road trains (usually three units being pulled by a semi tractor). Meeting one or passing one is an adventure on all of the two-lane roads, some of which are barely a lane wide.

The countryside became more and more desert-like, but it was still very pretty. Australia continued and continues still to impress us with its geographical, geological, cultural, and bio diversity.