Kuranda/Daintree Rainforest

I wanted to share with you some images from the hotel and the nearby beach as well as a beautiful lookout on the way from Port Douglas to Cairns. The first couple of images are close ups of the beach that is covered with these strange patterns. I discovered on the trip to the Great Barrier Reef that they're made by "digger crabs." The ocean washes up sand covered in nutrients and the crabs take the sand and eat up the nutrients, spitting out the sand in tiny little gobules. So I guess that's crab spit! Cool!

The beach itself is narrow and quite isolated, at least when I was there. I was able to run across the sand without much contact with anyone else.

Back at the hotel, we find exotice plants. And near the hotel is Rex Outlook. (See the selfie below and the panoramic.) As you can see, the day was lovely with sunshine and blue skies though rain had been predicted.

After a day's break from the Great Barrier Reef I took the Kuranda Skyrail and train. The tiny historic town of Kuranda sits atop a mountain that overlooks a rainforest. You take this gondola (skyrail) up the mountain, crossing atop the tops of the trees. There are two stops before the final at Kuranda. Click on the picture below on th right and it will pass through to the other photos.

One of the stops took you to a place called Barron Falls. Becuase we had had such a huge amount of rain (2 meters of rain in the last year!) it was overflowing and quite dramatic (see the last images above).

Basically Kuranda is a tourist trap. It's got postcard shops and art galleries, restaurants and ice cream parlors. But not much else. I arrived at 11:30 and had to wait until the train left at 2 to get off the mountain. A bit frustrating as the ride down was less impressive for me. You can see Barron Falls from the train side (along with the look out from which I took the above photos) and other images from the way down in the gallery below.

First, though, I chose a quaint restaurant that served pizza for lunch and ate with some friendly iguanas. After which stopped off at the local Anglican Church for some prayers. Again. clikc on the arrow below on the right to see other images.

On my last excursion while up in Queensland I visited the Daintree Rainforest, the "oldest rainforest in the world." It is estimated that this rainforest existed before there were dinosaurs walking the earth. (I am not sure how the scientist know these things!)

Our first stop was Mossman Gorge, with a nice waterfall. All the trees are tall as they are reaching for precious sunlight. And all the other plants are climbing atop the trees reaching for precious sunlight. You'll notice a tree with fruit off it in the photos below. (Again, hit the arrow on the right to see other pictures.) Notice how the fruit seems to grow right off the trunk. Our guide shared that scientists explain that this is very primitive and so the tree had not changed from long ago, from before fruits evolved to grow on the end of branches.

After the short guided walk we had "morning tea," a must for Aussies. After I finished I took a look around at the pretty flowers, the aboriginal art work and the "golden orb spider" (about the size of myhand with outstretched fingers) that sat out by the entrance.

Next we drove to take an hour cruise on the Daintree River. Below are shots of our ride to the cruise (see the island that looks like a croc?), the river cruise itself and images of the salt water crocs we encountered. The first croc is a juvenile about the length of my arm, the second is mom, about 2.5 meters long!

Our "afternoon tea" took us to an ice cream parlor serving lovely unique local flavors. Our guide showed us the "jackfruit" which is the largest fruit that grows on a tree! Some weigh as much as 120 pounds! The ice cream parlor also had some pretty gardens.

Finally we ended up at the beach, so that we could see where the "rainforest meets the reef." Next week will be images from the other side of Australia: Tasmania!