Tuesday 23rd June - Daintree Rainforest

Tuesday 23^rd June

On Tuesday we went on two rainforest walks.

This is a frog that we saw in morning.

This is a baby turtle. Can you see it?

On the second rainforest walk we saw a strangler fig that had curled around another tree and the other tree had rotted away to make a funny hollow bit in the middle.

This is the funny tree.

Here are some other things we saw.

This is a catapiller that looks like loon bands.

This is a brushturkey or a orange-footed scrubfowl mound.

This is a vine.

Mum's note:
We had a lovely time in the Daintree, it is so Alive. Apart from all the creatures and plants mentioned by Isabel we also saw lots of brushturkeys, a orange-footed scrubfowl, jungle perch and other fish, mud crabs, and a Birdwing butterfly. We are not sure whether the mound belongs to the brushtrukey or scrubfowl, as both belong to the megapode family that build such nests.

Mud crabs in the mangroves.

A cricket (or similar) that Caleb found.

No prizes for guessing why the turtles here are named Saw-backed turtles.

After the mangrove walk the kids played on the beach for a while. Caleb built a sand volcano, which then proceeded to erupt ash and lava over the area marked by the roughed-up sand. His mission? "It's Pompeii, of course!"

Caleb helping the volcano destroy Pompeii.

Finally, on the way back to Cairns, I couldn't resist taking a photo of this little act of vandalism that tickled my funny bone....

And no, we didn't see any cassowaries in either pose. 

Monday 22nd June - Daintree Rainforest

Monday 22^nd June

On Monday we went to Mossman Gorge. On the way we saw lots of sugar cane.

This is sugar cane.

At Mossman Gorge we saw a blue Ulysses butterfly.

This is the outside of a Ulysses butterfly.

This is a Ulysses butterfly.

Also at Mossman Gorge we went on a self guided tour. On the self guided tour we saw a swimming hole with fishes in. (The fish name was jungle perch). 

This is a jungle perch. Can you see him? 

Also later on the tour we saw a snake on the log above a stream.

This is the snake on the log. Can you see him?

After we went on the self guided tour we went over the river on a ferry. 

This is looking off the ferry.

After we crossed the river we went to a hotel. But before we went to the hotel we explored the Daintree Forest. The Daintree Forest is a rainforest with cassowaries in but we didn't see any cassowaries we only saw cassowary plums. (Cassowary plums are a big blue plum that doesn't have much fruit on and highly toxic to people but edible to cassowaries.)

This is a cassowary plum.

Mum's note:
We left our campervan back in Cairns and hired a cabin for the night in Lync-Haven so that we could make the most of our short time in the Daintree. There is apparently a male cassowary and his half-grown chick that are seen regularly around the Lync-Haven caravan park. So far we have only seen his calling cards. We did see a very spectacular preying mantis though.

Cassowaries are very important in keeping the rainforest planted.

Waiting for breakfast....

We first saw the cassowary plums at the Daintree Discovery Centre. Caleb would like it on the record that he spotted them first, which is absolutely true.
On our rainforest adventures in Mossman Gorge we also walked over a fun suspension bridge and saw a Red Lacewing Butterfly.

The suspension bridge over the river in Mossman Gorge.

The Red Lacewing Butterfly.

At the Daintree Discovery Centre we were able to see out over the rainforest by climbing this tower.

The 23m tower in the Daintree Discovery Centre.

Sunday 21st June - Cairns

Sunday 21^st June

On Sunday we went to church. At church there was kid church so Caleb and I went in kids church. In kids church we watched a video about Jesus. It was scary. After church we got to have a bread rolls. Caleb's looked like a clam and mine was a knot bun.

Today we bought a tent. This is me with the tent.

Mum's note:
We also went into Cairns city centre to organise what we would like do for the next few days. We had a look at the swimming precinct. As you can see, there is not a lot of activity in the water - the weather here is not exactly inspiring for swimming at the moment.

Cairns water park. Looks like it would be fun when the sun comes out.

Bush Stone-Curlew in the caravan park. Supposedly nocturnal birds with a loud scream-like call.
Certainly active at night, but also pretty active during the day here too.

Saturday 20th June - Innot

Saturday 20^th June

On Saturday we drove to Innot and played in their hot springs. The hot springs have algae in. 

This is me in the hot springs.

This is some with algae in. 

After the hot springs we drove to Cairns but on the way we stopped at 2 rain forest walks. In the first rainforest walk was long and the rainforest it is in has cassowaries in. The other 1 used to have cassowaries in and was short.

This is a stag horn fern.

This is me with a waterfall.

This is a weird pink leaf. 

Mum's note:

Before we left Mt. Surprise we waved off the Savannahlander train as it left the station first thing in the morning.

The Savannahlander train on its way back to Cairns.

The termite mounds in this region are different again. Suddenly the termites are building massive boulder-shaped nests.

The termite mounds around the Innot region are huge and boulder shaped.

The Innot Springs are the result of water getting into a fault line and being heated by proximity to the magma chamber 600m below ground. The water can be over 70ºC at the source.

Steam rising off a hotter part of Innot Hot Springs.

On the way to the rainforest we stopped at a wind-powered electricity farm. This is owned by a group of local farmers and you can get spectacularly close to the windmills at the lookout.

Two windmills making electricity at Windy Hill. 

The first rainforest walk was at Mt. Hypipamee. The walk went past Dinner Falls (pictured with Isabel) and the Mt. Hypipamee diatreme, which is a volcanic pipe caused by a gas explosion rather than a lava eruption. The crater is filled with water.

Mt. Hypipamee crater. The green is duck weed or similar, not algae. 

Why did the bush turkey cross the road?

The second rainforest walk was 2km out of Yungaburra at the Curtain Fig. This is an amazing tree, a strangler species that has killed its host tree. The host tree has subsequently fallen over and lodged in another tree at an angle. The strangler fig has then continued to grow at this angle, smothered the second tree and send down roots to form a massive curtain. The host trees are long gone, rotted away.

The Curtain Fig is huge!

We are now in Cairns. The geckos have changed shape. They have much longer tails here.

Friday 19th June - Undara Lava Tubes

Friday 19^th June

On Friday we went to Undara Lava Tubes. At the lava tubes we went on the archway tour. On the   archway tour we went in several lava tubes and lava tubes collapses. (Lava tubes collapses are where there used to be a lava tube but it collapsed acquiring plants to grow where it was.) I learnt that when black spear grass seeds get moisture they do the spear grass twirl.

This is a micro bat.

This is me with a lava tube.

This is me with a lava tube collapse.

(The spear grass twirl is when the spear grass seed twirls a bit.) I also learnt that the rocks that make the lava tubes are depending on each other to keep each other up.     

Mum's note:
The caravan park at Mt. Surprise is combined with a hobby farm with miniature ponies, bird aviaries, chickens, geese and an emu. 

Karate kid.... a Rose-Ringed Parakeet with attitude.

One of the many miniature ponies.

The Lava Tubes were fascinating. We learned how the lava from the Undara volcano had followed the creek bed, widening and deepening it through a process called thermal erosion. 

Looking from one tube collapse through a very short lava tube into the next collapsed section.

In some places the tube disappears because it goes straight down, following the creek over a waterfall. In other sections it is blocked off due to rock slump - where the cooling lava has slumped down off the wall and blocked up the tube.

The end of the tunnel where the lava has dropped away over a waterfall.

We also learned that the track on the property used to be the "highway" to the coast. Because it is just a dirt track it was marked by blazed trees, many of which are still visible.

A blazed tree marking the "road".

The micro-bats in the lava tubes are Horseshoe bats, and are noticeably different to the Bentwing bats we have seen elsewhere in that they were hanging from the roof by just their hind legs. The bats we saw in the lava tubes are entering torpor for the winter, and were seemingly oblivious to the tourists. We also saw an Australian brushturkey.

After we returned to Mt. Surprise we went gem "fossicking". Due to time constraints we don't have time to visit the gemfields nearby, so we bought some buckets of topaz wash (stones from a gem mine) and used the proprietor's tools to sieve the stones. Caleb found a beauty in his bucket - apparently if his rough topaz was facetted it would be about 4 carat, measure about 8x10mm and be about $200 worth. Nice find in an $8 bucket!

Paul and Caleb sorting a bucket of wash.

Caleb's topaz.

Isabel and Caleb playing noughts and crosses while Dad tries to match Caleb's find.

One of the many Common Crow Butterflies hanging around the bushes near the sieves.