Daintree Rain Forest

We headed north from our hotel through lots of sugar cane fields. In the 1800’s, the settlers cut down the red cedar trees to plant sugar cane. Sugar cane harvesting was a labor intensive activity, until they invented a machine that cuts off the grassy tops and then cuts the cane into 3 foot long sections.

After 45 minutes, we arrived at the Mossman Gorge part of the Daintree Rain Forest National Park. This is home to the last of the Cassowaries, an ancient bird that looks somewhat like an Emu. The region receives 12-45 feet of rain per year and over 400 different species of plants live in each 100 square meter area. We had an aboriginal guide who helped us understand the ancient ways in the forest. We started by walking through the smoke from a paperbark fire for cleansing. The first plant she showed us was a Waitawhile, which has barbs on it can be used to trap animals since it takes a while to release yourself from them. The vine can be used as fishing hooks. The base roots from the Red Cedar was used to fashion shields and killer boomerangs, which hooked the legs of small animals.  Further along, she pointed out the stinging tree which has fine hairs that irritate your skin, the more you scratch the worse off you are as the hairs dig further into the skin. The solution – pee on it, your urine is acidic and shrinks the hairs. Sarsaparilla grass can be crushed and it makes a good soap (which also helps with insect bites) and the stem when crushed helps provide deep heat, like Ben-Gay does. Along the banks of the river, we learned that a reason we’ve seen so many pictures of aboriginal men with white clay on them is that the clay helps hide the human scent when the men are hunting. Jenny then demonstrated how an aboriginal from this region would paint themselves. Each tribe had a different set of symbols to help communicate where they were from when trading.   We then learned about the different nuts and fruits in the rain forest. The Pandani fruit tastes like pineapple. The Daintree has a nut that tastes like coconut. They Cycad tree is from the time of the dinosaurs, it has a poisonous fruit, but when soaked in the stream for several days, the poison is removed and you have a fruit which can be turned into flour for a bread.

Jenny with tribal markings

We also learned some about life in the past and present for an aboriginal. Women are initiated when they reach puberty, they go into the bush to learn women’s traditions and skills for collecting and cooking. They use a shell to cut a brand on their skin which indicates that they are now a woman. Men historically married 5 women: the first would be in their 50’s past menopause to teach the man the family ways, and then others would be younger to produce children. Today, they only have one wife, but before marriage, he must visit the woman’s grandparents, who will provide the entire family tree. This is done to prevent accidentally marrying a close relation, quite possible because of the lost generation. We ended our walk with an example of an aboriginal hut. In this region, several generations would live in close proximity and live in an area for 2-3 months before moving to another area of the forest.

Fruit from our lunch

We had our best lunch of the trip at the Daintree Forest Tea House. On our plate beside our chicken, fish, or steak, was 8-10 different varieties of fruit, all of which grow in this forest: passion fruit, star fruit, dragon fruit, etc. Our host explained each of the fruits we were eating and how they were similar to or different from similar fruits in Asia, or the Americas.

Saltwater Crocodile

After lunch, we went on a crocodile cruise on the Daintree river. We did see quite a few crocodiles, even a one month old. We learned that the saltwater crocs lay about 55 eggs, because of predators, only 20 will hatch and most likely only one will survive to adulthood. But we also had quite a few other discoveries:  a sacred kingfisher, several rainbow bee eaters, an azure Kingfisher, and a python coiled in the tree, quite a trip!

Rainbow Bee Eaters