Cape Tribulation

[newcal]

I recently spent a few days up in Cairns, and surrounding areas. Here are some photos from a short trip to Cape Tribulation

Traveling along the Cook Hwy north of Cairns. This is dry, like a rain shadow area.

Dreaded Road Works

Eventually you reach the ferry over the Daintree River

Once across the River, you enter serious palm country..Licuala ramsayi

Cheers

Mike

Edited October 11, 2008 by newcal

[newcal]

Rainforest near Cape Tribulation

Local Roadside humour

A more serious sign

The beach at Cape Tribulation

Edited October 11, 2008 by newcal

[newcal]

[newcal]

Cheers

Mike Green

Edited October 11, 2008 by newcal

[Walter John]

Fantastic Mike, those black palms look very cool indeed.

[aussiearoids]

Did you get up to Geoff Fowlers old place ? He had an awesome Sallaca collection and the biggest Pelegadoxa in Australia . His house was built around it . btw Mike , the road kill is hanging to get ripe for your visit .

Edited October 11, 2008 by aussiearoids

[kylecawazafla]

wow! Those are truly amazing photos. I really like the first photo of the Licuala ramsayi taken from the river. It looks bizarre growing at the edge of a cliff. I'm used to seeing the photos of them in that one grove, with the classic shot looking up towards the sky with the green disks overhead. I would really like to find a high quality picture of that for my computer's background. I think I'm destined to go to Australia though, since all of my backgrounds on my laptop have been from your continent! There are so many palm genera in that area. I also really like the cluster of small Archontophoenix growing in the rocks on the edge of the stream. I would have never taken them for a pioneer species. I heard you can't go swimming at that beach, is it true? Box jeelies and salties??

[SubTropicRay]

Great stuff, thanks.

[Tyrone]

It all brings back memories. Fond memories. That area is my favourite place in the world. Aren't those Black palms just marvelous. Those Calamus are just beautiful too.

You can swim at Cape trib at the right time of the year. We did. It's kind of awesome to be swimming in bath tub warm water looking back at the forest picking out black palms in the canopy. Then looking further inland at Mt Sorrow as the clouds collide slowly with the summit and get all tangled up with the clouds already hanging there above the rainforest. It's just so peaceful and serene. So perfect a place.

Best regards

Tyrone

[paulgila]

cool shots! that "black palm" in post #3 is normanbya,right?

awesome beach shots,too(lamenting the end of socals summer).

[realarch]

Beautiful place except for the crocodiles though. So nice to see such beautiful palms in habitat. Thanks for the pics Mike.

Tim

[Walter John]

Just thought I'd check Mike, is there any more pics ?

[elHoagie]

FANTASTIC!

[Walter John]

cool shots! that "black palm" in post #3 is normanbya,right?

Yes, that is most correct.

[ariscott]

I always planned to visit Cape Trib... and haven't got around to it YET . Very gorgeous part of Australia... it makes me want to set camp and stay forever. I love Darwin too, but the rainforest... are just to die for in that part of Queensland. If only they have a lot of engineering jobs... .

Regards, Ari

[Daryl]

Beautiful place except for the crocodiles though. So nice to see such beautiful palms in habitat. Thanks for the pics Mike.

Tim

Yeah, you can never trust those salties. Some bloke got taken by a 15ft croc a couple of weeks ago in Cooktown. It is a pretty quick death fortunately. They just grab your head, roll over, and off it comes like a twist top off a cold beer.

Daryl

[bubba]

Australia is an incredible spot of Heaven on this Earth.I think you know that.Thank you

[Daryl]

Did you get up to Geoff Fowlers old place ? He had an awesome Sallaca collection and the biggest Pelegadoxa in Australia . His house was built around it . btw Mike , the road kill is hanging to get ripe for your visit .

Michael, this one?

[realarch]

Thanks Daryl, that bout sums it up.

Tim

[aussiearoids]

Daryl , awesome .. I did not have a camera when I visited Geoff , and when I got around to organizing another visit , he had already sold his place and had to be out in days . He is down your way now I think . Beautiful house , he is a real craftsman when building .

[JakeK]

Incredible photos. Daintree is one place I hope to visit some day.

[Daryl]

Here's a few more photos courtesy of Andy G

A young Normanbya

Crossing the Daintree River

Nice granite boulders

Licuala, Hydriastele and Calamus in the wild

[Daryl]

And one last one...Four Mile Beach at Port Douglas. Here's a nice little block of land for sale...wonder how much?

[aussiearoids]

For that sort of view in that town prob 2 mill.

[Walter John]

For that sort of view in that town prob 2 mill.

and the rest

[aussiearoids]

I did some work on the garden of one of the 'top of the hill' houses there .. owners sold it for about 3 ,, and built a mansion out at Rocky Point .. recently they bought it back for 8 !! Methinks its all some sort of tax dodge scam , just sharing the lucre around amongst your mates !! Some sort of competition going to see who can pay the most for a block , and what sort of ridiculous price on a house .

[ariscott]

Wouldn't it be nice to have a few millions to play around . I can't even afford to line my dam this year.... Oh well, there is always next year. At least my lawn is down. No more messy back yard!!

Regards, Ari

[Tyrone]

Wouldn't it be nice to have a few millions to play around . I can't even afford to line my dam this year.... Oh well, there is always next year. At least my lawn is down. No more messy back yard!!

Regards, Ari

A few spare million. hmmmmm. I'd buy some property somewhere good, in North Qld probably and plant a million dollars worth of palms. Actually I'd buy some north QLD rainforest, build a treehouse, and watch the Archo's grow.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Kris]

Very nice tour ! And thanks for posting stills in hi res mode !

lots of love,

Kris

[Dave-Vero]

Gorgeous scenery. Gotta save up to visit sometime. Our part of Florida is coming off a steamy summer that suited NE Australian palms just fine. Remarkable, how they can tell rainwater from irrigation water so easily.

Thanks to our occasional freezes, we have a Caribbean flora only along the ocean shore--our tropical hardwoods come in mini sizes. And of course the Caribbean is floristically an antipode to tropical Australia. I guess the only thing we really have in common is crocodilians and dugongs/manatees. And seagrasses. And yes, we have a native cycad, albeit not closely related at all to anything in Australia. One of the cool features of Central America is its forest-dwelling cycads. Greg Holzmann has suggested pretty convincingly that understory palms in the same habitats have leaves mimicking those of the cycads. Perhaps something about those nasty cycad poisons? So, as a thought experiment, could some of those cycads (genus Zamia) prove invasive in Australia?

[amazondk]

That is a great place. Thanks for the tour.

And Daryl thanks for the great summary of death by croc.

dk

[aussiearoids]

kiss many of the bigguns goodbye Cyclones

[tropicbreeze]

By tomorrow morning definitely.

[stevethegator]

They will regrow, hasn't the Daintree been there for millions of years? The bigger concern is potential damage to people, I hope everyone stays safe!