The Daintree Rainforest

Friday June 23rd – Another early start, this time for the Daintree rainforest which lies north of Port Douglas. We were pleased to find our group on this trip to be under 10 people and our guide was friendly and knowledgeable. This area of Australia has a lot of sugar cane fields which is one of the biggest industries in the area. We also learned about the disastrous introduction of cane toads to the area. It seems that after the sugar cane industry began the “powers that be” decided it would be a good idea to bring over the cane toad because they eat a type of beetle which eats the cane. What they didn’t realize was that the beetles, which eat cane low to the ground elsewhere, ate cane much higher off the ground here. This meant they were not a food source for the cane toads who moved on to greener pastures. Without natural predators the cane toads have multiplied to almost epidemic proportions, sort of like a locust invasion. They have negatively affected much of the native species of reptiles and birds and get so bad during the wet season that when you walk out your front door you cannot avoid stepping on them. They are poisonous to anything that might try to eat them, birds or prey, snakes, domestic dogs, and scientists are currently trying to figure out how to stop them.
But I digress… we drove to a place called Mossman Gorge and walked through the rainforest with our guide pointing out the flora and fauna. Here Grant was promptly bitten by something on the back of his neck which welted up immediately. This earned him the nickname of “bait” for the rest of the day.
Next we boarded a boat on the Daintree River and went for a “crocodile cruise”. We did indeed see several crocs as well as a couple of tree snakes, a python, and a few kingfishers. Then it was on to the Daintree village where we had lunch which included a delicious tropical fruit tasting.
We passed a pineapple farm and a sugar mill and our guide explained the processes for both.
Next was the ‘Rainforest Habitat’ in Port Douglas which is a small wildlife park. Koalas, Wallabies, Emus, & Koalas, pretty standard stuff. They did have an ENORMOUS crocodile which was very impressive to see. He had to be at least 15 feet long!
Next stop, Port Douglas for some free time (shopping or a beer), we went to the top of Flagstaff mountain next to town which has a beautiful lookout over 4 mile beach.
Arrived back at the hotel around 6pm and Sue was back from her dive trip waiting at our hotel. We went to dinner with her dive group and traded stories about the adventures we each had.