A wonderful day. We started with a short drive to the Mosman Gorge where we went on a guided walk with a local indigenous man, followed by hot tea and damper.
Our second outing of the day was a cruise on the Daintree. We now understand that we are accompanying a group of octogenarian twitchers up to Cape York. Absolute ecstasy over an azure kingfisher. The guide was a wannabe ornithologist who impressed everyone no end with his vast knowledge. A tad pompous. And of course, there were obligatory crocs – although Nancye and myself aren’t unconvinced they’re not the same crocs in the same spots we have each previously seen.
We had lunch at a tiny little place called the Daintree Teahouse. It was absolutely fantastic. All the meals featured a selection of about 20 exotic and tropical fruits. Mine with barramundi also. The best presented meal I have ever encountered. The owner then told us about each of the fruits, including their origins, medical and traditional uses etc. I’m thinking of convincing Tony, Deb and Belle to go back with me when we meet up at Port Douglas in a few weeks.
After lunch we caught the ferry across the Daintree and drove about an hour up to Cooper crossing. This short drive confirmed the wisdom of my decision to leave the van in Cairns and have someone else do the driving.
We then went on a walk around a privately owned property in the world heritage listed Daintree rainforest. This is one of the worlds oldest rainforests. The area was historically inhabited by indigenous folk, but they were all shipped off down to Mosman decades ago. The land was then divided into 120 acre blocks, and sold, with a view to logging once access was feasible. However, in the 1980s, it was compulsorily included within the World Heritage listing. The current owners purchased it back then and operate it as a world heritage site, which essentially means they can’t do anything on it except take small groups of tourists for walks. I went on the walk with Neil Hewett, one of the owners, and he was incredibly knowledgeable about the rainforest and it’s plants and animals. Head spinning stuff after 2 hours.
One of the interesting points Neil made was about the importance of long term human habitation in ecological management, and the damage done when scientists insist on no human intervention. He used an example of pythons to make his point. Back in the day, the aboriginals would hunt pythons for food, thereby controllong their numbers. Once they were all shipped off to Mosman, the pythons became the apex species and are now wiping out other species such as one of the flying foxes, which is now considered at danger of extinction. He told a story about a warning him and his wife received from the locals about pythons at the time of the birth of their first child. Apparently it’s something to do with chemical secretions between new mums and bubs and the pythons hunt the bubs. The python turned up the first night the baby was home and hung around for 3 weeks. It then disappeared until18 months later when the second kid was born, and ditto for the third. Obviously the indigenous folks would deal with this by making dinner of the python. No longer possible.
They’re not allowed to interfere with anything in nature, even the feral pigs which do a massive amount of damage to the landscape and native animals. Nancye checked with her son Bren ( who is in charge of culling kangaroos in Canberra) and even Canberra allows the shooting of feral pigs. So this is really weird – we’re guessing something to do with being heritage listed. Neil’s solution would be to open his property to the traditional inhabitants for hunting and gathering.
Overnight at a lodge in the forest at Daintree. wandered down to the swimming hole after breakfast.
Round about 