Last Updated Sunday June 10, 2007
We stayed four nights in the Daintree Riverhome Cottages owned by Barney and Kathy Booth. There are only three cottages and the Booths are wonderful hosts. The makings of a full breakfast are delivered every afternoon so Nancy could cook it up in the cabin kitchen in the morning. Barney would invite us up for a "coldie" every evening and we would dig into his stock of homemade beer. It was great beer! He claims it is the water, but I think he has a secret. Kathy would bring out snacks to go with the beer or wine. One night Barney showed Nancy and Chuck how to batter fry Barramundi fish his way. It was really an outstanding dinner. We asked to use their laundry facility and when we returned it was all done and folded. They are just delightful people.
http://www.riverhomecottages.com.au/
Nancy tried fishing for barramundi in the nearby Daintree River. The barramundi weren't hungry that day. Notice the "No Swimming" sign. That's because the river is full of crocodiles that are known to eat dogs and children along the shore and anyone who is dumb enough to take a dip.
The Riverhome Cottages are on the cattle ranch the Booths run. They have several hundred cattle roaming around the grounds.
Nancy and Chuck are city folk (Roy milked cows as his first job) so they were entranced with the cattle. They sat in the middle of the road thinking that the cattle would approach them if they weren't threatening.
Barney drives a proper bush truck with four-wheel drive, high utility bed and snorkel for fording deep water. He even let Roy drive it while Nancy and Chuck rode in the back. Streams don't even slow this truck down.
Barney took us on several hikes, one of which was a "proper" bushwalk into the rain forest. He went everywhere with his trusty cane knife. It was necessary for hacking through the vines and bushes. Some of the vines sported mean thorns so you had to be careful where you walked. We tangled several times with the "wait a while" vine, which forces the rest of the troop to wait a while while you peeled the thorns out of your clothes.
Barney hacked apart several logs looking for the giant grub (probably the one used on "Fear Factor") that tastes good. Fortunately we got to take his word for it as we didn't run across one on this trip.
The local trees yielded beautiful wood. One is the red cedar that was the first major product of the Daintree area. The roots of many of the trees spread out above ground because the soil is so damp. The wide spread roots keep the tree upright while smaller roots do the usual root thing to feed the tree.
There are all sorts of fungi in the rain forest from bright white to dark black. The goblet fungus in the middle is like a mushroom except the crown is cupped upward to catch water.
This half meter long forest dragon acted like it were dead for a minute or more until Barney pushed him a few times with his foot. It then scurried off into the brush. Nancy found a used snail shell and then a small birds nest perched on a skinny tree.
The scrub hens build these huge nests in the forest. Barney shows one off to Chuck that is over a meter tall and 3 meters in diameter, only a small one. The top has a soft spot where the scrub hens bury their eggs to keep them warm while they go off to forage for food. These scrub hen nests build over over many generations.
There is a reason Barney doesn't wear shoes on these bushwalks, you have to wade through the stream time after time. Our shoes still haven't dried out (or the smell gone away) three weeks later.
By the way these pictures were taken in the middle of the afternoon. It's dark in the rain forest!
This is a cassowary plum, named for the cassowary bird that eats them. The plum has a thin layer of flesh and a huge hard pit. The cassowary swallows the whole plum and excretes the pits. We found many cassowary dropping with the pits embedded. The record was 18 pits in one poop. I can't imagine passing one of these things let alone 18 at one time.
This is waterfall at the end of our proper bushwalk. Barney recons we are first Americans to ever see it. Kathy and their daughter have never been here even though they lived on the property for more than 20 years.
Another bushwalk brought us to this waterfall where the town of Daintree obtains its water. It's also a tourist attraction with four-wheel drive busses from the big operators bringing tourists up to see it. We just walked there from our cottage.