Next Stop? The Daintree Rainforest!
So 430 is my new 'rise and shine' time. Is that not insane? Either way, our 4WD coach was coming to pick us up at 6am to take us far up the Cpt. Cook Hwy today to visit the Daintree Rainforest.
What excited me the most was that we were on our way to visit one of the oldest rainforests in the world - a World Heritage site and at minimum, a forest that has been in existence for over 150 million years. Where in other parts of the world you might find a leaf or an animal that only exists in fossil form... we were going to get to see them in living color. It's like traveling through time, getting to touch the hand of God, getting to see something that has been quietly and powerfully alive since before modern human beings were even a thought.
The drive to the Daintree rainforest is like being transported back in time, to a place that has been virtually untouched. It's almost as dark as night on the floor under the high canopy, and almost cold. We walked past trees that were so tall that you couldn't see the top, King Ferns with arms that reach 9 feet in any direction, vines that could only grow up by reaching with spikes so sharp that just brushing by them, they'd grab you and give you a painful rash that lasts for weeks (no, the Lawyer vine as it's commonly called didn't get either of us). The moss on the trees and boulders is so thick, running my hand over it was like running my hand over wet, luxuriously plush carpet.
And the sounds of the forest... deafening silence broken only by the call of some exotic bird high above the visible tree line. It's the stuff of brilliant dreams that you live you whole life to experience. It humbles, inspires... makes you feel so small and so human. The air is so pure, you breathe it in and you are charged with a very potent energy. I've lived my whole life for this moment.
I liken it to walking into some sacred holy land... a cathedral. Above me the ferns and fronds and leaves form the highest ceiling - Michelangelo couldn't have done it better.
There's a silence that speaks to me in this place. It quiets me in ways that nothing else could ever - and it's exactly what I needed. I don't get to be that quiet that often, and when you're me, you take it where and when you can get it.
One of our stops was Cape Tribulation. Captain Cook suffered particular troubles while sailing in this area, running into large coral and putting a gaping whole in his boat. Thusly, he named this cape, Cape Tribulation to mark this experience. But it's breathtaking. The beach stretches for miles along the coast. You could walk straight to the Coral Sea for 500 feet and still only be chest deep. And you'd do it walking along soft, powdery clay that glitters as though it's made of ground diamonds.
We noticed very curious sand "sculptures" while walking along the beach. I suspect this is the excreted sand from some sort of shellfish eating along the beach. We'll have to do some research but this is my best educated guess.
When walking into what can only be described as the warmest most perfect bath water, I noticed little crabs and fish right along the floor. As I watched, a tiny striped fish swam by my feet and then turned around and came back to my left foot, curiously stopping by my pinky toe to inspect. It stared at my foot, my pinky toe, and I stared at this little fish, wondering why it was so interested in my little toe. And then I found out - it darted forward and took a little nip at my toe. Of course I hopped clear out of the water out in a sort of shock, panic and dread. This little fish wasn't so little in the first place, but I can tell you that it's amazing how quickly a little fish becomes several inches larger when it decides to snack on one's pinky toe. It might as well have been a barracuda. I realized very quickly that it didn't hurt that much. It was really just this odd interaction that caused me to jump up and twirl above the surface, before plunking back down and laughing with Brian. Of course he caught my ballet move on camera before filming the fish take a nip at his foot. It was really quite funny. Just another experience I can add to the novel I'm writing!
We also ventured to the Daintree River, home of some very large salt-water crocodiles, several species of mangroves and a few thousand birds and insects.
At Mossman Gorge, you can hear the rush of falling water all around you, you can feel the mist in the air and you are surrounded by bus-sized boulders setting in cold, clear water at the bottom of the gorge. Catfish and Perch swim by your feet and the ice cold water chills your legs with an ache of winter ice. It would have been very easy to set up camp and live there for a few hundred years..
At the end our day, as we cleaned the powdery, glittery sand off of our legs and feet, took a few last looks at the beauty that surrounded us...at this place...the only place in the world where two World Heritage sites meet....where the rainforest meets the reef - it was easy to feel at peace, easy to feel as though every little thing was going to be okay. It's the kind of place that makes troubles seem small and insignificant and connected you so wholly and completely to the earth that it was impossible to walk away the same girl as when I walked in. I took my last few pictures and smelled the rainforest air one last time, felt the salt bath of the Coral Sea...I promised myself that we'd come back. I am leaving pieces of my heart all over this strange land.
Goodnight...
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