When you think of the deadliest animals in Australia, what do you picture? Probably crocodiles, sharks, snakes, and spiders, but how many people answered with "bird"? Like, a big, prehistoric, freaking scary, deadly bird. Well, allow me to introduce you to your new nightmare, the cassowary.
Look at that thing. Look at its eyes. That bird wants you dead. I took that photo at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary near Brisbane, and the cassowary went charging down the fence line the second she saw the zookeeper go by. He stopped and just told us, "She doesn't like men."
So, you might be wondering how this weird looking bird would actually go about causing you fatal injuries. The answer is its claws, which are five-inch long daggers. If it feels threatened, it will karate kick you right in the abdomen, ripping out your insides. What's scarier is that you cannot outrun it. The thing can reach speeds of 30 miles an hour and can jump up to 5 feet in the air. You may not be able to tell from the photo, but they are big. The best thing to do in a cassowary attack is put anything you can in front of your stomach as protection and/or jump on the back of the tallest person you can find and hope that you intimidate it with your joined height.
These birds are also the ultimate badasses. Check out this fruit. This is called a cassowary plum. It is poisonous to humans and animals, except for the cassowary. They not only eat it, they swallow it whole. In fact, the fruit mostly survives because of cassowaries, because it's only from them passing the seeds back out the other end that enough new trees grow to keep the plants alive.
Oh, and the females give no fucks whatsoever. They attract their men at breeding time, who then must dance to win their affection. If the female deems them acceptable, they will mate, then she will lay her eggs and straight up abandon them to be incubated by the male. While the poor guy sits on these eggs for 50 days, barely eating, and then raises the children, the woman has already gone on to screw a few more dudes and saddle them with her unwanted offspring before the season ends.
Sound crazy? Australia is crazy. This is just one of the species that can be found in the Daintree rainforest of northern Queensland.
I took a tour up from Cairns. Luckily my old Swedish friend Rickard from Sydney and the Great Ocean Road had turned up in town, so I had a friend to travel with. It was about a three hour drive on the bus north to Cape Tribulation. Speaking of, how awesome is that name? I can't think of a place I've been with a cooler name than Cape Tribulation.
We stopped first at the Daintree River for a cup of Daintree tea and a crocodile cruise. Nothing like a hot cup of tea and some terrifying crocs to start your morning.
Everyone got on a safari boat that took us up and down the banks of the river looking for them.
Unfortunately there weren’t many out, but a big one was laying out up the bank next to some trees, and we saw a baby wading in the shallows a bit further on. It's always cool to see animals in their natural habitat. Besides, I would do a way more intense crocodile cruise a few months later to get my scare fix in, but we'll get to that eventually.
The bus then took us into the rainforest to drop us off at our accommodation. Rickard and I had chosen the YHA Cape Trib Beach House. The rooms were all in wooden jungle huts, four beds to each. We were in the first hut on the right, next to the bathroom/shower house and just near the kitchen. The room was also wooden with high slanted ceiling and slatted windows with screens to let the air in.
And friendly locals to greet you at the kitchen.
We spent our evening going for a hike. Reception had given us a map of different walks we could do, and we decided on one north to Emmagen Creek. Unfortunately the majority of it was on the main road, so we didn’t actually get to explore much rainforest along the way save for the trees along the street. It was around 9 kilometers to get there, which in normal measurements is 5 1/2 miles, so it did take awhile. We finally reached the river where you couldn’t drive anymore unless you were in a 4WD that could splash right through it. There were crocodile warning signs so I probably wouldn't recommend walking either.
Our walk though was a natural one to the left, and I actually got a little bit nervous realizing that we were on our own with no phone signal trekking through a rainforest full of deadly creatures, not even walking on a path, with nobody knowing our location. That's not how horror movies start, right?
Luckily we did not run into cassowaries, just pushed our way through trees and jumped over logs until we could hear rushing water and came out by the Emmagen Creek watering hole.
The tree overhanging the water even had a rope swing on it. I so badly wanted to swim, but I hadn’t worn a bikini, and the fact that I had just seen crocodile warnings not too long before made me slightly wary. There were only two other people there and they were in the water, but they were also Aussies so you have to question their sanity. Rick didn’t want to get in either, so we just walked back. We did see some wildlife though- spiders (oh, there were gigantic ones), little lizards, and the coolest butterflies I’ve ever come across. One had purple wings and a thick, bright yellow body.
I just had to wonder what the chances were that we were maybe the only people in the world who would ever see that exact butterfly. The rainforest is so massive and diverse. It's amazing to think how many creatures might have been just yards away from us as we were walking through the trees.
Sorry, nature brings out the hippie in me.
After getting back to the campsite, we rested for a tiny while to let our feet recover, then we set off to see a nearby lookout before the sun went down. The lookout was next to a beach which we happened to get to first, and that was so gorgeous that I had to sit down and appreciate it.
The sun was setting, so the clouds were all pink and the sky was reflecting off the water. The sand was super fine and soft, and the beach was framed by the trees leading into the rainforest. They say Cape Tribulation is where the rainforest meets the reef, and it was amazing to think you were in two World Heritage sites at the same time. I even hear that it's better to do your reef dive up there because it's so undisturbed by tourists.
We sat there until the light was almost gone then ran over to the lookout which actually wasn’t as good as the beach anyway. It was very dark when we were walking back. Only patches of light were coming through the trees and I kept thinking I was seeing things moving in the shadows. Luckily we made it back to the hostel before it was pitch black, and I spent the night reading and getting to sleep early.
Until 4 AM. Around that time, I heard the two girls in the room talking in loud whispers until I finally sat up to ask them what was going on, and they informed me there was a mouse in our room. Well, it was definitely no mouse, at least not one that I had ever seen. They were shining their iPads at it, and I did see it scurry across the floor, but it was fast. Just a shadowy blur. I told them to turn on the light, and it was clearly a nocturnal creature, because within seconds of the light going on it scrambled straight up the wall onto the window slats, turned around and stared at us for a moment, then pushed itself back out the screen into the darkness. I did get a decent look at it, but I honestly don't know what it was other than adorable. It was the size of a large rat, but it had more of a mouse-like face with big black eyes, and the way it climbed and moved made me think it had to be some kind of tree creature, like a loris. As cute as it was, we didn’t want any other unexpected visitors during the night, so we shut the windows up.
After checking out of our room the next morning, I spent an hour or two laying out in the sun and reading on the beach just down the path from our hostel. It's yet another gorgeous beach and also practically deserted. The sand was the kind that actually sparkles and leaves your skin glittery all day.
I haven’t mentioned yet, but the heat is immense in Cape Tribulation, as is the humidity. I was dripping sweat lying out in the sun and had tan lines after just an hour.
We had to be up by the lobby at 12:50 though to catch our tour bus, and our first stop after being picked up was the Daintree Ice Cream Company.
Easily among the best ice cream I've ever had! They grow the fruit on site. You can see the trees lined up in the fields and labeled. It was $6 for a cup with four flavors, two of which I’d never heard of, and totally worth it. There was apricot, blueberry, wattleseed (almost coffee-like), and soursop (which was white, sort of fruity, and not like any flavor I’ve tried before). I think the soursop was the best, but it was all amazing.
Next up we stopped for a quick photo at Alexandra Lookout, then onto the Mossman Gorge area for an aboriginal demonstration. I had been in Australia now for over five months and had not yet done a single aboriginal activity, so I was excited, although it was short.
The guy who spoke to us showed us boomerangs, the spears the tribes would use to catch fish and animals, a painted shield, different paints they use for their bodies, a leaf near the water that actually wrings out soap they use to wash themselves, and a didgeridoo that he played for us.
So much of it was using what nature provides in creative ways. Our tour guide also took the paint and drew on all of our faces which was fun.
Afterwards, we took an electric vehicle up the hill to the gorge itself. The Mossman Gorge was definitely one of my favorite sights in northern Queensland. It was gorgeous.
The water was all green surrounded by the rainforest with round grey boulders along the river, fish swimming by, and a small waterfall running down the creek to the left. The water was a little cold, but the air was so hot that I didn't even need a towel once I got out. I had to just take a moment to look around and realize I was swimming in a watering hole in the middle of the oldest tropical rainforest in the world. It was so incredible.
Our one last stop on the road back home was the Rex Lookout, and that was also very pretty. The clouds were drifting over the hill and the sun was going down, making the sky and water start to blend together.
For some reason, the rainforest seems to be off the radar of a lot of backpackers. It's so quiet up there, you would think it's some hidden secret, but really I don't know why people don't take the time to visit. It's beautiful, teeming with wildlife, peaceful, and an easy overnight trip from Cairns. Just don't feed the cassowaries and you'll be fine.