June 13

June 13 started out with the roar of lions, yes lions. Our apartment is located next door to a traveling circus, During a brisk walk down the beach for coffee we learned that today is a holiday. It is the queen’s birthday. Of course Australia doesn’t have a queen. It is the queen of England’s birthday. The United States used to be a British colony, but we don’t celebrate the queen’s birthday. I didn’t even know when it was!
Before we left for the Daintree we visited the Rainforest Habitat Center in Cairns. The birds were magnificent. We saw a cassowary, some huge pelicans, tons of moorhens and they were fighting ferociously. We think it must have been males fighting during mating season. There was a majestic black swan. The kangaroos ate out of our hands. Interestingly, kangaroos in Australia fill a similar niche to deer in the United States. They are a grazing animal, and seem to live all over Australia. They have claws, not hooves like deer.. One of them had a baby in it’s pouch. Mr. Harding saw it peek it’s head out. We all saw the pouch moving as the baby squirmed around. We also saw a huge crocodile and several smaller ones. And we saw our first tree kangaroo! I know you remember, the tree kangaroo fills the same niche as a monkey in other rainforest ecosystems.
After a fabulous morning there we headed to the Daintree. A guide from the rainforest habitat advised us to stop at Mossman Gorge and we did so. I have included some pictures. The gorge was beautiful And the rainforest there was fabulous. The ferns were amazing and really huge. We stopped at a place near there where you can take a guided rainforest hike with an aborigine guide. But, they were closed. Do you suppose the aborigines care if it is the queen’s birthday?
We had to take our car on a ferry to get across the Daintree River. That was kind of fun. The drive from there to our cabin was hair raising and we were glad we had Mr. Harding to do the driving. He has to drive us back down there tomorrow to go on a crocodile cruise with Dan Irby. Lots of people offer cruises on the Daintree, but we picked Dan because he is originally from Tonkawa, Oklahoma.