On Day 2 we hopped on a tour bus with about 15 others to visit the Rain forest area about an hour inland from Cairns. We got a few interesting biology lessons from the bus driver whilst stopping at various locations which included beautiful waterfalls and the most bizarre tree called a Strangling Fig tree. This particular bugger(the Cathedral Tree) sprouted in the canopy of a host tree (800 years ago) and then dropped roots to the ground below, as more roots grew the fig tree completely enveloped the host which died off leaving a gaping hole where the trunk used to be.
Most of the fun started when we arrived at our overnight stop in a cool little town called Yungaburra. The rough translation "place of bad spirits" can't be further from the truth. At dusk our local guide Damien(more about him later), took us to the river to see if we could spot any platypus (one of the rare mammals that lays eggs). These cute and very shy little creatures only come out of there holes below the water at certain times. I was expecting to see something the size of and otter/beaver but, when you see how small they are(ruler length max.) it becomes evident why they are so difficult to spot and were only discovered in the last century.
After dinner Damien took us kayaking down a local lake where we were guaranteed to see tree kangaroos, possums. These guys are nocturnal so the kayaking was done after dark in doubles with searchlight-type torches. It was an amazing night - the water was like glass and you could see the reflection of the starry sky in the water. After Kimmy had recounted a few stories about the Kruger, Damien seemed to relax a little as he realised that we were really interested in the wildlife. Even though he had done this little trip a 100 times over the last 10 months you could feel the excitement and passion for what he was doing as he would often scramble out the kayak and run barefoot through the bush in the hope of another sighting. A record 7 Tree Kangaroos spotted in one night meant that he had to make good on his promise to swim the last couple of hundred yards back to shore - rather him than me!
The following morning only 4 of us braved the 15km mountain bike ride through surrounding area. It's most exercise we had done since NZ and included some breathtaking stops in the rain forest. After lunch we took another kayak trip. this time we convinced Damien to bring his dog Jed along (a boxer mixed with staffie that looks like Gucci back home). It gave us a daytime perspective of the area we had visited the night before and we have a few cool pics to take home as memories.
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