Our trip to Northern Queensland, May 2006


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The Barron Falls of the river in the gorge, both of the same name Charlotte and the Barron Falls - a quick step off the train to Kurunda Water, rocks and gravity - what a spectacular combo Charlotte taking over the camera
View from the scenic railway from Cairns to Kurunda Entering the first of 15 hand-carved tunnels The edge of the rainforest A view of our train
Red Bluff Glacier Rock Foresty views from the train More train - this time on bridge
Stoney Creek Falls The gully opposite Stoney Creek Falls Wonder how you get to that village Another view from a trestle bridge
Leaf-cutter ants just outside Kurunda station A butterfly... Australia made out in chainsaw chain in sidewalk Charlotte with a glossy black cockatoo Birdworld, Kurunda
They really like to get their necks scratched Another glossy black cockatoo taking over my shoulder He looks quite happy Let me back up!
Charlotte a bit more at ease this time... A sulphur crested cockatoo and a little corella being friends A galah posing for us A Major Mitchell's Cockatoo doing...
...a little... ...stunt for us. A busy Rainbow Lorikeet I really think we are in the tropics
Frantically trying to make Major Mitchell show his crest ...we kind of succeeded The Glossy Black getting another scritch from Charlotte Feeding time for Rainbow Lorries
A brush Turkey prowling the streets of Kurunda a butterfly in Kurunda's Butterfly Sanctuary A Ulysses butterfly in the Butterfly Sanctuary This one is truly Herculian
It had just appeared from it's chrysalis the same morning Another butterfly... Unidentified, presumably female honeyeater Caterpillar at the Butterfly Sanctuary
A blurry Channel Billed Cuckoo - huge beak! Lots of rainforest View of the Barron Falls from one of the Skyrail stations A walk in the woods with an aboriginal guide
The young trees shoot up to the light in just a few years The undergrowth of Gondwana plants Ferns nesting in a tree... There are no laws about which way to grow...
More birds-nest ferns The last stretch down from Kurunda via the Skyrail Aerial view of the outskirts of the rainforest At Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park
Girl showing us the use of rainforest plants Here she is with her spear-thrower (atlatl in North America) Trying to show us gringos how to throw a spear Walking to a safe distance
I'm having a go at it - nothing I aimed at would be in any danger :-} Aboriginal beauty After a thorough discussion of their weaponry they agreed to a picture A dance, storytelling and didge performance
The didge - what a wonderful instrument Making fire without matches, lighters or steel and flint ...and we got a spark ...and smoke :-)
and flames - who brought the snags? An as yet unidentified tree with a strange fruit Here one of them has opened, exposing a seed The strange tree in it's entirety
Our (YHA) accommodation in Port Douglas A gecko checked-in at the same YHA The river-train crossing the Daintree River Our ride across the Daintree River
A strange spider (from below) spotted at Crocodylus YHA, Cape Tribulation An old trees roots embracing an emerging micro-environment Getting strangled Shrooms - spot the little one
Tracks from the most destructive intruder after humans - the pig A fern girdle Slender Black Palm trees - ideal for spears The local Bandicoot
A big Golden-orb spider spotted on our guided night-walk Here it is from the front Seed and leaves of a plant unchanged since Gondwana More shrooms
Well camouflaged insect Brown Thornbill taking a snooze out of reach of snakes - hopefully Sacred Kingfishers hanging out The dining area of Crocodylus YHA
The trunk of Black Palm can be split into long straight thin spears A strangler fig at work Termites nest dug out by Brown Thornbill hatched from egg laid inside The hand that rocked the vine...
A little unidentified tree-frog Spot the insect! Our guide holding seeds s**t out by Cassowary - they can now germinate Moss on a tree-trunk
Our airy accommodation at Crocodylus YHA Singing(?) Honeyeater pruning itself on Frankland Island Charlotte showing off her pregnancy on Frankland Island Dead coral washed up on the beach
A sea-slug at Frankland Island Rocky East coast of Frankland Island A Lesser Frigatbird patrolling the tropical skies Our ride back to the mainland joined by the little glass-bottom boat
Hauling our provisions back to the ship Some of the neighbouring islands Coral imprints on the beach Leaving Frankland behind
Ms. Wombat (in the middle) at Cairns Tropical Zoo The Crocodile hunter is back! Snooze-orama for two red pandas So you think Cassowary is a silly name!
Well, get in here and tell me that again! A White Bellied Sea Eagle having a snack in Cairns Tropical Zoo The inside of a plane, retired from the Flying Doctor Service The patient has been discharged - she is still pregnant :-)
A Flying Doctor radioing home for instructions A Yellow-bellied Sunbird outside Cairns Botanical Gardens Australia's famous man-eating plant ...well, maybe it's not THAT big...
And now for a few botanical wonders from Cairns Botanical Gardens here is another one and one more Don't know the name of this one either...
Or of this one... A little tree-frog hiding here A Bird of Paradise Me in the Cairns Botanical Gardens
Nature is pretty good at making beautiful things Another variety of Bird of Paradise A seed-/flower-pod of something... The YHA in Cairns - very good accommodation
...very tropical :-) And we are leaving for cold Canberra :-/

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