After breakfast, we hopped on our bus, and headed north to the Daintree Rainforest, namely Mossman Gorge.
We drove up the Captain Cook Highway, past many fields of sugar cane. Apparently, Australia grows a large amount of sugar cane.
We drove through the town of Mossman, and arrived at the Mossman Gorge Visitor Centre.
There, we met “Skip”, our Aboriginal guide, and took a smaller bus to the beginning of the trail we were to follow.
Skip was very good at explaining things to us. First, he asked us to undergo a kind of initiation ceremony, one involving smoke, which we moved through to expose our bodies to it. We then moved on to the trail, led by Skip. He stopped quite often, at clearings in the trail.
At the first such stop, he showed us a plant:
The plant in the center of the above photo is considered the most dangerous plant in the Daintree Rainforest. It is the dreaded ‘Stinging Bush’, also known as ‘Gympie-gympie’. It is covered in thick hairs that, when touched, inflict a painful sting that may last for months. There is no known antidote, so travelers beware! By this stratagem, Skip very effectively got across the message that the forest could be a dangerous place. From that point on, we were afraid to touch anything at all!
Skip told us many interesting things about plants that the aborigines make use of for many uses, including catching fish, and other prey. At a stream, he demonstrated how to create paints from soft mineral stones. These can be used as natural sunscreens and insect repellents, plus body paints for various reasons.
At the end of the trail (a circular one, so we ended up where we started), we sampled some native bread, and listened to Skip play the didgeridoo (not an aboriginal word) with some skill.
From there, we returned to the visitor centre by the same small bus.
