Author: Mrs A
Location: Diwan and Cape Tribulation
Thursday started with the now familiar calls of the Wompoo-Fruit Dove, somewhere in the trees around camp. We wandered out to see where and Mr A spotted it, hanging precariously upside down munching on fruit on a palm tree. He hung around long enough for me to capture some photos, something that is pretty rare to achieve apparently, given they spend most of their time high up in the canopy and are often seen only as a bright flash of green, yellow and purple as they fly off.
We took this as a good omen that we might see one of the rare and endangered Cassowary birds – at between 1.5 and 2 metres tall and up to 80kg, they would be hard to miss!
We jumped in the cruiser and headed north, our first port of call being the picturesque Thornton Beach. The first thing we spot, other than the view, is a ‘recent crocodile sighting’ sign. There are a few of these about, reminding us that there is always the chance we could become a toothy scaly creature’s snackette. We took a chance and strolled along the beach.No crocs in sight, just a vocal Beach Stone-Curlew and a very cute Red-Capped Plover strutting the sands at low tide.
From here we continued north, calling next in at Dubuji Boardwalk and Myall Beach. The short walk was very informative, and as always full of incredible sculptural rainforest trees and vines.
We drove up as far as the 4WD commencement of the Bloomfield Track which leads up to Cooktown, before turning and calling in to more short walks at Cape Tribulation and then Noah Beach.
There’s so much to learn about the rainforest, and incredible that this has been around since the time of dinosaurs, many of the plants changing very little in that time.
We returned to camp and to wake up Miss Tassie who had enjoyed a good 5 hours without being disturbed. She took me for a walk up the hill behind where we are staying, and clambered on more rocks.
Oh and the Cassowaries? Nowhere to be seen…
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