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ON TO CAIRNS & RAINFOREST NIGHT WALK Saturday
We dropped our things and set out to determine what the agenda would be for the next three days It's like a huge smorgasbord to choose from and it's so hard to make choices. We always feel like we need a week more in each place and this seems even more so. There is so much out around Cairns we'd love to do!! We found a Rainforest Wildlife Spotlighting Tour that started at 2:00 p.m. which fit our schedule just right. We joined five others in a specially outfitted VMW bus for a Mountain Wildlife expedition. We had two from California, two from Sweden, one from London and then Rus and I. We took the Gillies Highway south and climbed higher and higher for about 19 k. We were headed to the Atherton Tableland. Rolling green mountains or hills were stretching out in front of us. This area is rolling sugarcane fields now and Eucalyptus (blue-gum) Woodlands. The lowlands are a dry forest of the gum trees with a grassy understory. The rainforest begins as you climb higher. Only one-half of one percent of Australia is rainforest, yet is home to 30% of its marsupial species, 60% of its bats, 30% of its frogs, 23% of its reptiles, and 18% of its birds. Many of these are found no where else! Our first stop was in an area of the World Heritage rainforest where we walked in to see a 500 year old Cathedral Fig (also called a Strangler Fig). It starts as a seed dropped up in the top of the tree. It then drops roots to the ground and over time completely has the host tree surrounded and chokes it to death. It was so huge it's indescribable - it was the equivalent of a twelve story building! The rainforest gets about 100 inches of rain a year. The rain increases with altitude (in the clouds up high). There are approximately 1100 species of trees in this rainforest, 400 of which only grow here. There are many rare and primitive plants (living dinosaurs of the plant world) here as this is one of the oldest rainforests. Lots of botanists come here to study. We worked our way to Lake Barrine, which is a volcanic crater lake.
Ben, our guide, fixed afternoon "tea" under a sheltered area. We explored for a few minutes as he set up. Our first finds down by the lake were Australians Bush Turkeys and Purple Swamp Hens. Almost immediately it started raining! How appropriate! Tea and biscuits (cookies and cakes) quite hit the spot. After tea we put on our ponchos and headed into the forest. Our tour was called "Wait-a-while Environmental Tours" and we discovered first thing why. There is a palm that puts out runners from the top that reach out to grab on to other things to help it grow up for daylight. It has thorns down the runner that will "grab" you and won't let go. If you "wait-a-while" and back up slowly it will release you. They grip so strongly - one fella told us about riding a mountain bike with his brother... brother being in front... he went through that vine and it pulled him right off the bike. We spotted several Musky Kangaroo Rats and Chochilla Birds in the area. Both were digging around in the ground cover. Bush turkeys were common. Ben told us how to cook them. Put them in a pot with a stone and boil them till the stone gets soft and then throw the turkey out and eat the stone!!! That must by why we saw so many. We saw an Orange- Footed Scrub Fowl like the one that had built such a huge nest in Darwin. Actually the birds use the nest for years and years and just add too it so it's not very common to find one that big. The Aboriginals would steal the eggs from these nests for "bush tucker." We also spotted a Victoria Riflebird. It's just so much fun seeing these beautiful creatures in their native habitat. Ben didn't tell this group about the leeches until we exited the forest. Rus and I knew to look for them and we did find them. We drove to some private property at this time on the N. Johnson River to try to spot a duck-billed, egg laying mammal called a Platypus. They are so rare and very difficult to spot. Ben is an Environmental Science major and lived in New South Wales most of his life trying to spot one. They are very skittish around people and don't like noise or movement. There are some living in the area where we went and since it's private they aren't disturbed too much. We were able to spot them several times as we waited. They were so much smaller than I expected. They are always in pictures by themselves and they appear to be bigger. They are only active at dawn and dusk. What a treat for us to see! Yungaburra was a small town that was almost nothing but a restaurant. It was a Swiss-Italian place, called Nick's Restaurant and had such charm and decor! It was a wonderful spot! They will often have bands and yodelers etc. Antique musical instruments were all around. Rus says that's the best we've eaten yet. We all had the Barramundi - a gray-silver fish that is renown throughout Australia! It was excellent! After dinner the real part of our adventure began. We drove into the National Forest and went "spotlighting." We were using wide beam, low light spots looking for the critters up in the trees. We spotted Greater Glider Opposums and Common Ring Tailed Possum several times. We don't have those varieties at home! The clouds were low and prevented us from going too far up the mountain but it was great fun. We were all plenty tired when it was time to go home. We happened to find a green tree frog along on our way and Ben spotted a python which got away before the rest of us saw it. Most of our group napped on the winding, twisting road on the way down.... destination time was 1:00 a.m. Another long and full day of adventure!! |
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