Australia, Featured, Growth Year, Travel

Daintree Rainforest, Australia

Posted by jessicasabo on

After Cairns, I joined a new group with a different tour leader Michelle. She was from Cairns actually so it was nice to have an Australian guide this time around. After introductions, we headed north to Port Douglas which would be our home base for the next 4 nights as we explored the Daintree rainforest and the surrounding area.

The Daintree rainforest is 135 million years old, making it the oldest rainforest in the world! It has several unique plant and animal species that can only be seen here. Our rainforest guide Angie took us around her property and explained the native plants and animals to us. The number of plants that are toxic and can kill you in this rainforest is shocking! Literally, I felt like I shouldn’t touch anything just in case it was poisonous. You really need to be knowledgeable if you are going to live in this area of the world otherwise one wrong move could really cost you.

New group: Liv from the UK, me, Angie from Australia, and Shayne + Sandra from Canada
One of the highlights of this entire trip was our guided rainforest walk with Angie. She has lived in the Daintree rainforest for over 20 years and she was so knowledgeable about the flora and fauna of the area. She was born in New Guinea actually and all her stories were so interesting. She told us the night she brought her newborn home there was a python snake outside just waiting for its opportunity to strike. I guess this is common after birth due to the pheromones, and she said the previous homeowners actually lost a newborn to a python which was so sad to hear. Lucky for us pythons are nocturnal so we didn’t come across any.
The canopy of the rainforest was beautiful with all the fern trees.
Crocodile
Ulysses butterfly
Golden-orb spider
Tube-nosed bat hanging from the leaves.
Tree frog
This is not the best picture since we were far away, but this is a cassowary bird that is part of the ostrich family. It’s only found in Australia and New Guinea. This is a juvenile maybe 4-5 years old per Angie.
Some plants I have never seen before.

Fungi
Ivy
Cape of Tribulation

You can’t swim in these waters because there are crocodiles and killer jellyfish this time of year. I swear everything is trying to kill you in Australia!

I couldn’t believe how many mosquito bites I got after just two hours in the rainforest. I counted over 100 and I was wearing leggings and used bug spray with DEET! I was miserable for a couple of days with the itching. It’s been a week now and I still have the bite marks all over my legs. Hopefully they fade soon.

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