Daintree National Park

Daintree

The drive to Daintree hugged the coast and was exceptionally beautiful with the sun squeezing its rays onto the turquoise water between the nice, puffy clouds. All the beaches along the way were essentially abandoned save for a family or a couple here and there. It wasn't that time of year yet, but soon the waters would be infested with fatally poisonous stinger jellyfish. Perhaps there was a shark danger, too?

We spotted an Osprey nest in a microwave tower at the side of the road. Ospreys and their nests are easy to find. Just look up near any coast and you'll probably spot one. Watch where it lands and you'll probably find a nest. Amazingly, after I caught this osprey on film Kelly noticed a funnel cloud at sea! It was dissipating quickly and was not cooperative with my camera. We'd never seen a funnel cloud before; I'm glad it was a great distance.

We found our way up into the Daintree National Park area. One of my coworkers recommended staying at the EcoLodge there. We checked it out, but it was quite expensive. They recommended a few bed and breakfasts in the village. It was a short drive to the village, which was a tiny one at the end of the road. A few of the recommended Bed and Breakfasts were surprisingly sold out. We found one that looked nice enough, except for the completely pink interior, and unpacked our things.

The proprietors were an interesting couple. Not only were the rooms pink, but everything the wife used was pink - pens, paper, even her office. They were a nice couple, though. She told us the story of how she called the White House when the World Trade Center was attacked, just to express the sorrow from a little town in a foreign country. They booked us on an evening electric boat ride and a morning private boat ride.

That's what you do at Daintree. There's a river that runs through the park and you take boat tours of the area. Kelly and I were the only passengers on the evening's electric boat ride. Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable. She pointed out everything she could and we were even spotting (and naming) things that she didn't. I pointed out a nankeen night heron on the bank, just like the one we saw at David Fleay's Wildlife Park in Surfers Paradise.

We also saw a small sunbird in its nest. Not very interesting until you consider the fact that the nest was one of those gourd-shaped enclosed things hanging from a branch over the water and that the bird wasn't supposed to be nesting this time of year.

The tour was only an hour and it was too dark to get any good pictures. Most of the remarkable things we saw were in the first 20 minutes of the tour. We returned to the village to have dinner at its only restaurant, then we retired for the evening.

The next morning it was pouring rain. We weren't sure if our second private boat tour was really going to leave at 7:00a if the weather was so miserable. We decided not to pack everything in the car to leave it all exposed in a parking lot. We'd return to the bed and breakfast after the tour to settle our bill and collect our things. We drove to the dock and the weather miraculously began to clear up. By the time we parked and got out of the car it had unbelievably stopped raining. We met our boat driver and another couple who were on the private tour and we boarded the boat.

This tour was run by Mike, an English guy who had operated the River Train for 9 years, a hokey-looking system where the first boat pulled the rest of them in a line. He now had his own small boat that seated a maximum of 4 passengers. That morning we discovered plenty of animals starting with the azure kingfisher when we turned up a tributary.

The American bird books suggest that kingfishers and hummingbirds are not far-off relatives. Kingfishers are larger and they can't hover or fly backwards, but the resemblance is definitely there. The azure kingfisher was surprisingly tolerant of our presence, although he did seem to like turning his back to our cameras.

The river's edge was covered with mangrove trees. Mangroves are a family of trees that can process saltwater. The few species we saw were distinguishable by the way their roots looked. Some were tall and stilt-like, others were wide and fan-like. All the roots were visible above the waterline. Mike pointed out a large basket fern suspended in one of the trees. The basket fern is an epiphyte, a family of plants whose roots never go into the ground. They just anchor themselves in the armpit of a tree branch and live high above the forest floor. We'd seen plenty of epiphytes in the Queensland rainforests, and we have plenty of them in the States, too, such as the bromeliad.

Mike's primary goal was to find a crocodile. This time of the year wasn't the best to see them. The water was warmer than the air, and crocs being cold blooded tended to stay in the water a lot more than on land. Nevertheless we spotted one on the shore. At just about 2 feet long, the young croc wasted no time seeking the protection of the river when we got a little too close. Then it submerged so that just its eyes and nostrils were peeking out from the water. Now we knew what to look for on the rest of the tour, so perhaps croc-spotting would be a little easier.

Across the river we spotted a large bird hanging out on a fallen limb. It was a darter drying its non-waterproof wings out in the air after hunting for food in the river. Pythons were supposed to be in the area, but all we got to see was a harmless treesnake.

We finished our boat tour after about 2 hours. Stepping onto the pier it started to rain. We noticed a number of tourists just getting ready to board their tours. Looks like we slipped through the good-weather window just perfectly. As soon as we got on the road it started to pour. Since it was still morning we thought about visiting Cape Tribulation or Mossman Gorge, but the rain suggested that we just head to Port Douglas.

We returned to our bed and breakfast to collect our things and pay our bill. It cost $99. Not only did they not accept credit cards, but they gave us our change back in 10-cent pieces. Needless to say we weren't thrilled with that accommodation. If you visit Daintree Village, look out for the bed and breakfast with the pink rooms.

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Mick@micktravels.com

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