Daintree Rainforest

[Tyrone]

Here are some pics of the Daintree rainforest north of cairns and Port Douglas. It's a beautiful world heritage area.  

Enjoy

The ferry to cross the Daintree River. There is no bridge. There are crocs in that river. Don't fall off...

This is from a lookout point back towards the mouth of the Daintree. Originally they were going to put a town at the mouth. I don't know how they would have done that.

[Tyrone]

Mist in the mountains with Black Palms (Normanbya normanbyi)

A closeup of the fruiting Blacks.

[Tyrone]

Not a palm , but Lepidozamia hopeii

It's an old cycad

[Tyrone]

Licuala ramsayi

Calamus moti

[Tyrone]

Black palm in fruit

Forest stream, crocodile territory

[Tyrone]

Calamus moti, my avatar

Another view of leaf

[Tyrone]

Mountains behind Cape Tribulation

[Tyrone]

Calamus seeds

Black Palm in seed. I never get sick of looking at Black palms especially when they're in seed.

[Tyrone]

The road to our accomodation in Cape Tribulation

This was at the B&B where we stayed in Cape Tribulation. This was the eating area for the main house. The house wasn't able to be closed or locked up from the forest. This required all food etc to be locked up in the cupboards or else forest creatures would have a party in here at night. The mess would have been tremendous in the morning. All vegetable scraps were recycled by being thrown over the balcony for the forest to consume. At night the forest parties, with bird calls near and far, possums scurrying around the huts at night dropping onto the roof and all the insects and frogs. It's beautiful to listen too, but if you wanted a quiet night, this isn't the place for you. Also what you do hear every now and again is black palm seeds falling from the tree, and sometimes they'd hit the tin roof with a very loud bang. My sort of place.

[Tyrone]

Another view

A view of the eating area looking back in.

[amazondk]

Thanks for the pictures Tyrone.  That looks like a great place.  Just curious but where does the black palm get it's name from?

dk

[Daryl]

Don, the name comes from the timber of old palms which has a black fleck though it.

Daryl

[Walter John]

Gotta get me more Normanbyas, I have two in waiting, but I think I want more.

Thanks Tyronne for the inspirational pics.

[paulgila]

great pix,tyrone!that is a beautiful area & i really like

the normanbya!i have never seen such mature ones

before.truly inspiring!

[LJG]

Wow, thanks for bringing back memories. Most particularly was the fact I got Dengue Fever from there. I laid in bed for 4 days for 23 hours straight. What a vacation!

I loved Daintree (in fact I think I loved all of Queensland). Wonderful place and HUGE.

[paulgila]

whoa,bummer,len!

how is dengue fever transmitted?

[Cycadcenter]

Tyrone,

I've used that ferry a few times but have never seen a salty.  

Here is another ferry on The Cape a little farther north across the Jardine River just south of Bamaga.

We were first in line for the 7 am start and there were slide marks down the river bank about 100 mts where I took this photo

I might add that it costs $75.00 to use the ferry

Have you ever been up that far?

Bruce

[LJG]

(pohonkelapa @ Jul. 04 2007,12:07)

QUOTE

whoa,bummer,len!

how is dengue fever transmitted?

Like most other nasty things in the tropics, those pesky Mosquitos.  

[amazondk]

Paul,

They call Dengue the bone cruncher disease.  I thought I had it once but it turned out to be malaria.  Not that malaria is any better.  Dengue really has no cure, just rest and tylenol and you get over it.  There is a hemoraging variety which can get quite nasty and even be fatal. We get quite a bit of it around here, fortunately not the hemoraging variety.  It is transmitted from household mosquitos.  Malaria is transmitted from mosquitos in the bush.  

Daryl,  Thanks for the info.  I bet the wood is nice looking.

dk

[Tyrone]

Bruce, I've never been that far up, but I really want to go one day. I'd pay the $75 to cross. The other option is to cross it yourself in a 4WD somewhere when the conditons are right. I'd rather stay on the barge than risk bogging the 4WD in a salty infested river. I love nature but not that much.

Dengue fever and mossies. I've heard of outbreaks up there. To be honest though I don't think I saw even one mosquitoe. My own back garden tends to be a mosquitoe haven. When we went the first time to Malaysia, I probably saw one mosquitoe and one spider. When I came back to Perth in winter in my own garden I got bitten within 5 minutes. I hope we never get the tropical diseases down here.

regards

Tyrone

[SubTropicRay]

Great photos Tyrone.  I especially love the Normanbya photos.

[Jeff Searle]

Tyrone,

     What a beautiful looking place to visit. Any idea on how many species of palms are found there? Thanks for sharing.

Jeff

[palmmermaid]

Tyrone,

Thanks for the wonderful pictures.  Another reason for me to take an extended vacation in the land downunder, along with Snowy River (I want to see that cliff he rode the brumby over.  10 years ago I would have followed him!), and everything else about Australia.

[Tyrone]

(Jeff Searle @ Jul. 05 2007,08:36)

QUOTE

Tyrone,

     What a beautiful looking place to visit. Any idea on how many species of palms are found there? Thanks for sharing.

Jeff

Well, lets see if I can make a list of the Daintree species. If I've missed any out I'm sure Daryl will pitch in and complete it.

Archontophoenix alexandrae

Licuala ramsayi

Linospadix minor

Normanbya normanbyi

Hydriastele wendlandiana

Calamus moti

Calamus radicalis

Calamus holrungii

Cocos nucifera

and where we were staying I saw what looked like a Korthalsia but I never got a pic. I don't think any Korthalsia come this far south officially. I would imagine Ptychosperma elegans would inhabit this area because they exist north and south of here, but I never saw any in the Daintree.

Up in the mountains exist, Archontophoenix maxima, Archontophoenix alexandrae, Archontophoenix purpurea, Archontophoenix myolensis, Linospadix apetiolata, Linospadix microcarya, Linospadix palmeriana, Oraniopsis appendiculata, Laccospadix australasica (both forms), Calamus caryotoides.

Further north of Cooktown is where the Wodyetia bifurcata comes from, as well as the northern Licuala ramsayi, Ptychosperma macarthuri, Hydriastele costata (Gulubia costata), Caryota albertii, Arenga australasica, and Calamus warburgii, and various Livistona's as well as Corypha's. The area north of Cooktown I've never seen. I'm going back there next month and we've hired a Landcruiser so we'll see how far we get up north of Cooktown then. I've read that the flora has a lot in common with Papua New Guinea the more you get to the north end of Cape York.

Glad everyone liked the pics. This is my favourite part of the world so far.

best regards

Tyrone

[OldNed]

Tyrone,

I've got a mate in Julatten, Queensland who used to be the Ferry Master on that Daintree crossing.  In 1979 he was given an "odd seed" that a passenger had collected on the Melville Range.  That's two years before Wodyetia was discovered up there.  Wore it around his neck for years...many ferry riders admired it.

Great pictures of the Daintree area....wasn't gonna but now I think I'll go back to Paradise next year.

[chris.oz]

Hi Tyrone,

Brings back memories.  Great place.  But the little mosquitoes can just about lift you off the ground.  I found them worst in the camp ground near the L. hopei, in particular.  Up on cape trib itself there were not so many.

Luckily no malaria up there,  but maybe not for long.  Certainly dengue,  and thats fromn the daytime biting mossies I believe.

[eastern.nurseries]

The Jardine river and the Jacky Jacky are the best fishing in Australia. I can not describe in words the beauty and wonder of this unique area.

[happ]

Thnaks for sharing photos of a beautiful part of the world of palms