DAINTREE

THURSDAY 1.9.2011: First stop the Mossman "Hands on Healing" Veterinary Clinic to deposit the puddles for their day stay. We then set off for the Daintree. Advice received "the road was narrow and a bit winding". HA, greatest understatement - in reality hair pin bends that seemed never ending. 

There were many adrenalin fixes for the day:

FERRY

• Manoeuvring Poodle Palace onto the ferry to cross the Daintree River.
• Travelling the hair pin bends with Carole cemented to the door handle and seat.
• Driving the road where works are being completed on the caved in shoulders.
• For Carole, climbing the 5 story Canopy Tower at the Daintree Discovery Centre - not good with heights!

EXIT OFF THE FERRY

Finally arrived at the Daintree Discovery Centre. The Daintree is one of the few places where the rainforest meets the reef! It is its antiquity that really sets it apart. It is the oldest intact lowland tropical rainforest in the world.

• The Amazon is about 7 million years old
• Kuranda Range 60-70,000 yrs old
• The Palmerston Range near Innisfail about 50,000 years old
• The Daintree is thought to be between 110-200 million years old.

This tropical rainforest ecosystem is one of the most complex on earth. Its plant diversity and structural complexity is unrivalled on the Australian continent and represents the origins of many of Australia's most familiar flora.

Many millions of years ago Australia was warm and humid, and rainfall was plentiful. Rainforests were even found in Central Australia. However, as Australia became more arid there were fewer places rainforests were able to survive.

In the Daintree region, the climate and topography were ideal, so the area became a last remaining refuge for tropical forest and many species have survived with little change. Even today, the descendants of these ancient species retain primitive characteristics - some dating back 110 million years.

The photographs do not capture the height of the rainforest nor the dense undergrowth.

CANOPY TOWER



We had hoped to travel to Cape Tribulation, but due to time constraints with the poodles decided against it. Meandered our way back down the hill to the ferry and then headed for the mandatory crocodile and wildlife tour. We decided on a one hour tour with Solar Whisper.

 

Finished the day at the Daintree Village local.

Picked Madison and Shayden up and although weary, we were advised that they had behaved - miracles do happen!