Parasites!

Well- Atherton turned out to be just another country town, nothing remarkable,except that it is surrounded by some interesting features.

The rainforest contains a curtain fig tree, of interest in that it is a parasite that originally climbed up a large tree, then killed it and took over. It was impossible to photograph it from far enough away to get the whole tree in, it stands around 150ft high, and drops dozens of arial roots which look like a curtain.
Fig trees provide ample fruit for a number of animals such as tree kangaroos and white tailed rats, while their twisted and tangled roots and branches provide protection from predators.
There are a few of thesec trees around, but none as large or as famous as this one. Unfortunately much of the forest has been cleared for farming, resulting in the loss of habitat and the extinction of a number of indigenous animals, such as the Southern Cassowary and the Musky Rat-kangaroo, and at least three plant species are vulnerable.

The fig tree is not the only parasite that grows in this area, we spotted a fern that grows half way up a palm tree in many places, but in this case does not appear to do harm. Also a 'cauliflory', clusters of flowers and fruit that are borne from the trunk of the Yellow Mahogany tree aand others.These flowers and fruit provide food and nectar for many animals and insects of the forest.

Nearby was a crater formed many milennia ago when gases escaping from deep below the earth opened up a large hole which today still goes many hundreds of feet down, and is largely unexplored as it is full of water. Trees grow from the sides of the crater that receive sunlight, while the other sides are mainly treeless.

As we are on a plateau, some two thousand feet above sea level, there are many excellent viewpoints looking down over the fields and hills below, on a good day one can see down to the coast some 40 miles away. Unfortunately the height makes it very cold at night, and we have been suffering! 

In our travels we came across a military aircraft museum, where volunteers actually keep a number of aircraft in flying condition, we saw a DC8 (or was it 10?) and a couple of others

Today we drove down to the coast again, to Port Douglas, a pretty little town about 70k north of Cairns, where we will spend the night. We had hoped to take a cruise along the waterways here, but unfortunately the boat was fully booked, so we will have to try again another day. The beach is superb, and as with many around this coast, almost deserted.

Tomorrow we drive down to Cairns, to attend a Rotary District Conference with our friends Joanne and Percy Schilling from Darwin, it will be interesting to see how conferences are conducted in this part of the world. I'll leave you with a couple more pictures from the past few days.