June 23: Daintree Rainforest

"Where the rainforest meets the reef"

  Today I went to Australia’s largest rainforest, the Daintree Rainforest. The rainforest is estimated to be 180 million years old. This rainforest has an extremely rich biodiversity with 4,500 different species. This area is now a World Heritage Site so people can’t destroy the land and the locals are working to conserve every aspect of it including even the smallest things from road signs to speed bumps to make the roads safer for the animals. People are mostly concerned with the future of the Cassowary bird.

The Cassowary’s population is low and there’s an estimated 4,000 left in the Daintree Rainforest. These birds have no ability of flight and have three big claws on both feet. This endangered bird is usually shy and hides within the forest, but sometimes visitors are lucky to see them! In addition to Cassowaries, there are other birds such as kingfishers, owls, and pigeons. This forest has the greatest concentration of birds in Australia.

            This rainforest ecosystem is astounding and one of the most complex in the world. The area has mountain ranges, streams, waterfalls, gorges, and dense forest.  There are white beaches such as Cape Tribulation where the rainforest “meets” the Great Barrier Reef. In this rainforest there’s a total of 12 out of the 19 primitive flowering plant families; thus, making it the highest concentration of these plants on the earth.  

My friend (Martha from London) and me at Cape Tribulation

            After walking through the rainforest, we went to Cape Tribulation- one of the white beaches. The beach was beautiful, but unfortunately, crocodiles crowd the area and swim in a lot of the areas around Cairns.

Cape Tribulation- Where the Reef meets the Rainforest!

We also saw a wide variety of insects, reptiles, and others. We saw a wide variety of butterflies, lizards, frogs, snakes, and crocodiles. The second half of the tour was on the Daintree River were we saw various crocodiles! The crew have different names for specific crocodiles and are able to identify them easily. After the crocodile cruise, we ended up in Mossman Gorge to swim to end off the Daintree Rainforest Tour.

A crocodile sitting on the side of the river