North then South

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Friday April 13th an auspicious day,  so in a rush of enthusiasm over experience we decided to push on North to Port Dover, expecting that the campground we were heading to would be flooded after torrential overnight rain.  We found a wonderful spot at Big 4.  Brian showed us the driest site on the campground, high and very slightly sloping in all directions.  Next morning we woke in our dry tent and gave thanks that Brian was on duty when we arrived.   Port Dover was not our kind of place, chi chi with stingers and crock warnings at the beach but Big 4 and its current collection of campers were most definitely our kind of people

Daintree Rain Forest

Walu Wugirriga Lookout with views to the mouth of the Daintree River the southern most part of the rain forest

Daintree, part of the Wet Tropics Rainforest - the oldest continually surviving tropical rainforest in the world.  A UNESCO  World Heritage Site ince 2015

With an estimated age from 135 million  to 180 million years,  the Daintree has 12 of the only 19 primitive plant families remaining on earth,  making this the highest concentration of these plants worldwide
Marrja Boardwalk

Via boardwalks visitors experience the rainforest while preserving an irreplaceable ecosystem where there are 122 animal and plant species on the endangered list

Strangler Fig, natures filigree                

Dubuji (place of the spirits) Boardwalk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Epiphytes  survive without rooting in the ground, preferring to be high up in trees.  They are not parasites and gain no sustenance from their host

 Basket Ferns - Epiphytes create their own ecosystem

Mangrove Roots                                                                                  

    Fan Palms - top left, center and center right     

Cape Tribulation so named, because according to Cpt. James Cook their vessel Endeavour was holed on it's underwater rocks and  "here began all our troubles" 

Jelly fish and crocodiles abound at this time of year

  Where  rainforest and mangroves meet the ocean

I think Larry may have something to do with the less than pristine state of the beach                 

We drove to Daintree Village where I stood on a fence to wait for sun and cows to align but the heavens opened, we got soaked and headed back to camp

We left Port Dover in pouring rain heading for the Atherton Tablelands but decided to cut our losses and head for Townsville and the Whitsundays

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