| Back In
Time To Gonwonda Land |
| Adventure
In Australia |
| By William Starr Moake |
| Ever want
to go back in time to see what the earth looked like say 120 million years
ago? You can do it in Far North Queensland, Australia - minus the
dinosaurs, which you wouldn't want to run into anyway. The starting
point is Cairns (pronounced "cans"), which has an international airport
with direct flights to and from major cities on the U.S. west coast. Cairns
means tombstones and refers to the early history of the sugarcane town
when many residents died from malaria. There is no malaria in the area
today, but dengue fever (also carried by mosquitoes)erupts occasionally,
so use insect repellent during your stay. I rented a Toyota in Cairns
and drove 50 miles north along a coastline where rainforest mountains dropped
down to breathtaking beaches. One of the most beautiful was Four Mile Beach
just before I reached Port Douglas. |
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| This picturesque
village lies at the edge of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of
North Queensland, which includes the Daintree rainforest and the Cape Tribulation
wilderness.
Port Douglas is the cultural center of the area and
boasts a playhouse run by British actress Diane Cilento.
Some distance
inland from Port Douglas I strolled under the canopy of the Daintree
rainforest on a boardwalk. It's the oldest tropical rainforest in the world
- a remnant of Gonwonda, one of the two original continents that formed
when the planet was still young.
Of the 19 oldest
plant families on earth today, 12 are found in this relatively small area.
The local flora includes large tree ferns and other cycads, ancient ancestors
of palm trees that served as a major food source for herbivorous dinosaurs.
I was amazed to see such lush foliage on a continent known for its vast
desert wastelands.
In Australia
rainforests cover less than one percent of the land and they get up
to 200 inches of rain each year. |
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| The boardwalk
was a good idea for several reasons. On the forest floor I might have encountered
one of the top ten most poisonous snake species in the world, THE most
deadly spider (the funnel web spider) or the Stinging Tree, which
has been known to kill a full-grown horse.
I was reminded
of the sea wasp warnings I had seen posted at certain beaches earlier.
Sea wasps are brown box jellyfish that can kill a human if he gets tangled
in the transparent tentacles. You have to play it safe in this part
of Australia if you don't want death to spoil your whole vacation. About
30 miles past Port Douglas is the Daintree River Ferry, the only way across
the river.
It costs $16
and the ride takes only five minutes. I noticed "No Swimming" signs
with a crocodile drawing at the ferry terminal. |
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Offshore Resources Gallery
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| Salt-water
crocodiles range from the ocean to far inland on rivers. Near Cairns I
had seen one in a zoo that measured 9 meters long (that's 29.5 feet!).
Salties, as they are called by locals, are the largest crocodiles in the
world and kill humans every year in Australia. Fresh water crocs (freshies)
are much smaller and considered harmless. Some people even swim with them,
but not me.
The road
on the north side of the Daintree river turns to dirt as it enters
the Cape Tribulation wilderness. I followed a young couple in a Porsche,
which I was surprised to see on such a rough track. The driver soon lost
me on the winding road and I punched the gas pedal to catch up. As I whipped
around a bend, I saw a huge bird standing in the road and slammed on my
brakes. It was a cassowary and I stopped only a few feet from it. The damn
thing just looked at me and refused to move out of the way.
It was five
feet tall with the biggest claws I had ever seen -- big enough, I read
later, to disembowel a human with one swipe.
I backed up
the Toyota and drove around him. |
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| It was a good
thing I hadn't run over the cassowary. They are an endangered species and
I would have been fined several thousand dollars.
I finally
caught up with the Porsche, which was idling in front of a stream while
the driver thought about risking a crossing. When he plowed through the
water, I saw it was only a foot or so deep and I followed with no problem.
By the time
I came to the third crossing, I noticed dark clouds in the mountains
up
stream. The Porsche had already crossed and vanished, but I knew
what those clouds meant.
It was raining
up there and sooner than later all that water would rush downhill and swell
the streams, perhaps making them impassable. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| If I pressed
on toward Cooktown, I could get stranded between streams and have to spend
the night in the bush. With no food or safe drinking water. Fending off
creepy crawlies that might try to slither into the car.
No thanks.
I
walked to the nearest beach for one last look at Cape Tribulation,
then I turned the rental car around and started back to the ferry.
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