Cairns to Townsville

Mangrove forest in Cairns.

In the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, between Cairns and (just north of) Townsville, we visited just about every National Park, photographed every waterfall and walked every track. Unfortunately, large patches of rainforest were damaged by recent cyclones (Yasi in 2011 and Larry in 2006) and the bare patches are now invaded by weeds and colonising native species. Nevertheless, it is still a stunning environment with high species diversity, dense rainforest, abundance of permanent water and gorgeous walks and camping areas - high humidity and march flies included for free.
Note that QLD National Parks has just changed all its park names to aboriginal names (which seem too hard to pronounce or remember).

Rainforest and...

 

  ...creeks everywhere!

The Gympie stinging tree (Dendrocnide moroides) loves to grow in disturbed areas and along walking tracks! It is amazing that people don't get stung more often.

 This palm (Calamus moti) has thorns everywhere and tentacles with hooks to claw its way to sunlight. It's also called Lawyer cane because once it has its hooks into you, it won't let go. Haha!

The Boulders Scenic Reserve, Wooroonooran National Park.

Eubenangee Swamp National Park.

 Nandroya Falls, Wooroonooran National Park

View from Mamu Rainforest Canopy Walkway.

Mission Beach - the camping area is right on the beach!

View from Bicton Hill, Djiru National Park: looking south with Mission Beach and Dunk Island in the back-ground.

Fan Palm Forest, Djiru National Park. All other tree species fell during Cyclone Yasi, but somehow the palms survived.

The town of Tully is apparently the wettest place in Australia. This gumboot is 7.9m high, which is the highest recorded annual rainfall for Tully, average is around 4m/year!!

Sugar cane harvesting and ..

.. the (Chinese owned) mill in Tully.

Kirsten during the sugar mill tour. There was steam, dripping hot water, sticky floors and dust everywhere. Maybe the Chinese don't have to follow Australian work-safety rules?

Murray Falls in Girramay National Park.

Broadwater camp ground in Abergowrie State Forest.

Wallaman Falls in Girringun National Park - the largest, permanent, single-drop waterfall in Australia (268m drop). 

The walk to the bottom was very hot and steamy - and then the track stops about 100m before reaching the swimming hole!

The port of Lucinda has the longest jetty in the world, extending for 5.6 km and dipping 1.2 m over its length as it follows the curvature of the earth!! It contains a conveyor belt to load raw sugar onto ships.

Here, some more impressions from the wet tropics:

Strangler .....

... and Buttress Fig.

Green tree ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) have been our companions since Cape York. Every morning our tent was included in their "foraging highway" and every time you brush against a plant you end up wearing a few of them. Cute aren't they?

And what's this?? Yes! It's poo. From a Cassowary. It's a great way to show how important these rare giants are for the survival of the rainforest. Some of these seeds are the size of golf balls and depend on Cassowaries for their dispersal and fertilisation. So don't speed in the rainforest!

Somebody with a sense of humour changed a "bump" sign into a dead Cassowary.

These gorgeous creatures were hanging out in the toilet on a camp ground. They are probably just too hard to spot in the wild!

CREB Track

The CREB track is yet another 4WD challenge that Kirsten had to tick off her list. It's a very steep maintenance track for the power lines, going through creeks, rainforest and woodland. Her brother Angus joined us for a day of adventure.

Twice there was a tree across the track that we had to remove.

The track is quite well maintained but some sections are so steep that it would be impossible to drive it in the wet. Apparently people get stuck after they slide down the first hill and aren't able to get up the next. The track is visible on the horizon below!

Roaring Meg Falls - a gorgeous spot!!

On the way back to Cairns we even saw a Cassowary with a chick eating a Bandicoot! Very lucky!

Great Barrier Reef

We were fortunate enough to be invited on Kirsten's dad's boat for a week. It's a beautiful timber boat and he actually built it!! We went from Cairns to Opal Reef, St. Crispin Reef and back to Cairns for six days. The weather was FANTASTIC!! I didn't even get seasick and we spent hours snorkeling every day.

Here's the gorgeous looking Pelagos.

Dolphins, turtles, sharks...

... and these ugly creatures: Green humphead parrotfish. They were over 1m long!

The reef was in pretty good condition besides some dead patches from what appeared to be storm damage. Below some shots of the many shapes and colours found on the reef.

 

 

 

This is the only Crown-of-thorns starfish I found during the six days and it was only the size of a small plate.

Clownfish are so hard to photograph!! They dart around and hide as soon as you get too close. And if you're not diving they usually don't come back before you run out of breath.

This nudibranch was only about 50mm long. I was lucky to spot it.

One of the bomboras (usually called bommies) that can be detrimental to a boat. You can't see them until you're almost on top of them!!