Life in the Rainforest

Teny writes......

Due to the heat and humidity, as well as lots of rain and being close to the equator, northeast Australia has the biome called the Rainforest. When we arrived, we were immediately struck by how lush and green everything is here. Temperatures often stay in the 30's with high humidity. We traveled through the rainforest and saw huge palm trees, ferns, vines, and mosses. 

And did I mention that it is hot and muggy here? No matter what you do, you always feel hot and clammy.

Palm trees and ferns grow so large. Here Cheree and I are walking on a boardwalk at the Botanical Gardens in Cairns.

You can tell the age of a bamboo tree by the number of rings on the trunk of the tree, compared to other trees in which you of course can only determine that by cutting the tree down and counting the rings then.

Cape Tribulation: where the dense rainforest meets the Coral Sea. Too hot to walk along the ocean, so we sat in the shade. We took a bus tour north to Cape Tribulation, and on the way had to cross the Daintree River by ferry. You wouldn't want to swim across that river because crocodiles live in it.

An iguana on our path

We rode in a gondola on the Skyrail from Cairns up to Kuranda, where we could overlook the rainforest.

From the gondola, we saw Barron Falls.

We stepped out of the gondola a few times and followed the boardwalk high up in the rainforest. We even saw some parrots flying around.

Millaa Millaa Falls high on the tablelands, where it is delightfully cooler.

Curtain Fig Tree:  Starting from seed dropped in humus high in a canopy tree, the strangler fig sends down roots which thicken, interlace, join, and gradually strangle the host tree. We enjoyed a great day out with Rev. and Mrs. John and Alice Kroeze on Wednesday.