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| An agile wallaby |
In a repeat of yesterday we awoke to torrential rain and
moved the car closer to the amenities! We sat having breakfast and chatting to some
of the other campers. Naively, I didn’t
consider the fact that mosquitoes might be around in the morning here in the
rainforest. I got eaten alive! As soon
as I noticed I ran into the shower before drying off and completely coating
myself with layers of chemicals to hopefully repel the horrible creepy
crawlies. It’s a great adventure to camp
in the middle of the forest, but the bugs are infuriating. The rain continued but we went for a walk in
the local rainforest anyway and visited some of the inhabitants of Lync Haven. We then took the
car for a drive to the furthest point north in Queensland that we could reach
without a 4X4, Emmagen Beach.
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| Emmagen beach - our furthest north point in Queensland |
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| The narrow road through the rainforest |
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| A real live cassowary! |
After our cassowary-searching efforts of yesterday we were
clearly due some good karma. With no one
else about, we both noticed a large dark bundle of feathers in the long green grasses
on the verge before a bright blue head popped up and there was our cassowary.
I hope this video works for you,
because equally as impressive as finding one of these rare prehistoric birds
was the deafening insect noise from the rainforest.
As soon as we’d
stopped and put our hazard lights on, more cars and tour buses appeared and we
all sat and watched the impressive creature until he slowly strolled into the
undergrowth to join….. a chick! Sadly, I couldn’t get a good image of the chick
as it was nestled in the forest, but what good news to see that the birds are
successfully breeding.
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| See the pale legs with a blurry blob on top? That's the chick! (Best I could do) |
I was happy with our day’s achievement and it was only 11am!
But we did carry on up to drive off the last bit of sealed road in Cape
Tribulation and along a gravel section as far as we were advised. We had been
given a map on the ferry coming over and so as we returned south we took our
time, stopping off at every viewpoint and boardwalk available. Cape Tribulation Beach itself was stunning in
that the sand was directly bordered by dense rainforest and palm trees, but it
wasn’t the idyllic setting I had imagined......
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| Cape Tribulation beach |
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| Anyone for a swim?! |
.....Mostly probably due to the weather
conditions. And the dangerous creatures
element. There are warning signs
everywhere about crocodile sightings, advising you not to go within 5 metres of
the water’s edge AND bottles of vinegar for if you do decide to swim anyway and
get stung by a box jellyfish, as we are right in the midst of stinger season.
So, paddling through the shallows or reclining on the sand isn’t at all
inviting!
However, we really enjoyed a stroll around the Dubuji
boardwalk, spotting mangrove crabs, golden orb spiders, fish and eels.
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| Golden orb spider |
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| Stick insect |
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| Mangrove crab |
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| The mangrove |
I’m
not sure if it was the humidity or the last couple of long driving days
catching up with us, but by mid-afternoon we were exhausted. We headed back to our rainforest retreat for
coffees and a relaxing evening chatting with the other campers and swapping
travel tips. During the evening as the
rain continued to fall we were joined by bats, mosquitoes, frogs and toads and
an infestation of flies. Living right amongst
nature.
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