Cape Tribulation

Driving north from Cairns along the Captain James Cook Highway.

First stop was the Daintree Discovery Center. Looking at the rainforest again, I thought about how amazing it was that the natives who lived here could look into the flora and "read" it, knowing which produced edible fruits and which were dangerously poisonous.

The fan palm.....easy to recognize and my favorite.

Speaking of "reading" the rainforest, this plant right here....poisonous. I guess in a life and death situation, you would learn, but I'm pretty clueless.  Were I a native, I'd probably touch it and suffer.

The spiky leaves are the giveaway sign.

Strangler trees!  The seeds are deposited by birds at the TOP of the tree, and then the roots grow down the host tree, essentially strangling it.  The host tree eventually dies.

The northern part of Queensland is home to the endangered Southern Cassowary, a HUGE bird that is important because it disperses seeds around in its feces.  The cassowary eats many fruits with large seeds and then it moves along and passes those seeds to new places.  The cassowary feces is the only mechanism for certain plants to regenerate.  Plus, they are just cool looking. The center has cassowary on site but they didn't make an appearance.  Carlos and I were VERY disappointed.

All along the Cape Tribulation drive were warnings to watch out for cassowary. 

And then.....along the side of the road!  A CASSOWARY.  We saw one!

And then our destination.  Cape Tribulation.  Where the "rainforest meets the sea."  Two UNESCO world heritage sites, of such different natural phenomena, meeting at the same place.

Carlos (in the rainforest) taking a picture of me on the Great Barrier Reef (well kind of).

The reverse!

Next stop.....South America!

Happiness is the wind in one's hair!  And having seen a CASSOWARY.