Cape Tribulation
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
— Augustine
After spending a few days scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, I realized there was no way I could leave Cairns without exploring the rainforests of Cape Tribulation. This part of northeastern Australia is one of those extraordinary places where tropical rainforest comes right down to the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. Just when I thought the most amazing thing about Australia was its wildlife, I discovered that the plant life could be every bit as fascinating — and in some cases just as dangerous.
My tour guide, Matt, picked me up at the hostel at 7:00 in the morning in the 4×4 shown in the gallery. We picked up a couple from Tassie and another couple from New Zealand. That was our entire tour group for the day. COOL! Nice and small. The day’s adventure would take us through Cape Tribulation, Mossman Gorge and the Daintree.
First stop was Cape Tribulation. We hiked deep into the rainforest while Matt explained some of the strange and occasionally dangerous plant life surrounding us. One that certainly got my attention was the notorious stinging tree, commonly known as the gympie-gympie. Its leaves and stems are covered with extremely fine stinging hairs that can lodge in the skin and cause intense pain that may persist or recur for a surprisingly long time. This was definitely not a plant you wanted to brush against.
Then there were strangler figs, which can begin life high in another tree before sending roots down toward the forest floor, eventually surrounding and competing with the host tree. We also encountered nasty hooked and serrated vines capable of grabbing clothing and tearing skin if you weren’t paying attention. Australia apparently wasn’t satisfied with having dangerous crocodiles, snakes, spiders and jellyfish. Even the plants wanted a piece of you.
Walking through the rainforest, I kept getting the feeling that a dinosaur might step out from behind the vegetation at any moment. The place looked prehistoric, and the photographs only begin to show the enormous scale of some of the foliage. We stopped for morning tea, where I had my first encounter with a goanna. Pretty big lizards. Eventually we walked out of the rainforest onto the massive and intensely beautiful beach at Cape Tribulation. Rainforest behind me, tropical beach in front of me — and then I noticed the jellyfish warning sign. Yep. Still Australia.
