Rainforest

Greetings from the steamy north Queensland
We have spent the last couple of days in the rainforest, boy its hot and humid.  You sweat just standing still!  The rainforest is beautiful, thick lush growth.  Its amazing how many types of vegetation can survive in such a small area-trees, shrubs, heaps of vines climbing-several on one tree.  Lots of butterflies, some birds, but not as many as usual due to the cyclone.  Apparently alot of the birds have travelled inland.  We took a cruise on the Daintree River, its lovely just floating along looking a the forest and listening to the sounds.  It is amazing how loud the sounds of the forest are-birds, cicadas, frogs (mostly at night).  We saw a salty sunning himself at the riverside-he didn't take much notice of use fortunately.  We did a rainforest walk and climbed to view it from above, all the vegetation competing for sunlight.  Beautiful butterflies-electric blue wings, black with yellow spots.  Have found a few freshwater swimming holes to cool down in as its so warm and the ocean is like bath water.  Also stingers in the water and crocs in some of the rivers, so the swimming holes are  the best bet.  Lots have waterfalls, very nice way to spend time.
We made it up to Cape Tribulation and are now heading down the coast again, trying to avoid the rain.  A hard task as its raining everywhere in Queeensland today.  We just visited Paronella Park which is an old leisure park built in the 1930's.  It is ruins now, but quite lovely with ferns and moss everywhere.  We did a night tour which lit up the ruins and the falls, pictures to come.  It was the first place in the area to have electricity, by almost 20 years.  They had hot and cold running water and sold ice cream, a real treat back then.  There was a cinema and a dance floor with a "disco ball" which was quite rare in the 1930's and cost more than the land.  We were treated to a tropical storm complete with thunder and lightening and heaps of rain.  It comes down so heavy that you can shower in it and comes down heavily for over an hour.  Lots of flooding.
We just drove through Tully which is one of the hardest hit by Cyclone Yasi.  It looks like a bomb went off, trees totally denuded, broken, bent.  Debris strewn everywhere.  Roofs ripped off, walls torn away and signs bent over (I mean heavy highway signs bent over to the ground by the wind).  It has been 1.5 months so a lot of repair has been down, but still a lot to do.   It is amazing how fast the vegetation grows.  All the vegetation we are seeing is since the cyclone.  Lots of new shoots, and growth.
Not sure where we are heading next

road train which can be up to 50 m long.  A real bugger when you a driving an automatic diesel campervan.

Kim and Dan