Visit to Daintree Rain Forest and the Cape Tribulation

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I fly to Cairnes, Queensland and stay at the RIHGA Colonial Club Resort. Breakfast is served in an covered outdoor space looking out at one of the resort's three pools surrounded by palm and other trees.

The Wilderness Challenge four-wheel drive van picks me up at my resort hotel and we drive up the coast to the Daintree Rainforest.

During the morning we take a boat cruise on Cooper Creek where we see a 3m long crocodile sunning on the bank.

We are in sun, unusual for this time of year, but we see clouds over the peaks in the rain forest.

After the cruise we eat lunch at another resort in the rainforest (Daintree is a national park but is a patchwork with only about half of the land protected). Then we proceed to Cape Tribulation. Capt Cook was stuck on the reef just off this cape for several weeks.

After leaving the cape, we take a walk through the rainforest and mangroves at Marrdjja Boardwalk. We see a ginko species that is locally known as the 'Australian Dragon'.

Most of the life is at the canopy near the tops of the trees. Here we see basket ferns growning at the top of trees. This is a symbiotic rather than parasitic relationship. The ferns do now take nutrients from the trees, only using them for support and in fact provide nutrients to the trees.

After leaving the Daintree Rainforest we take a short walk in Mossman Gorge, where we see a rainforest turkey.