The Daintree River

Wednesday we had a relaxed morning and after lunch drove north from Pt. Douglas to do some exploration of the Daintree River. The Daintree River runs through the vast Daintree National Park which includes the Mossman Gorge and Cape Tribulation. Our Frommer’s Australia guidebook had recommended Dan Irby, a man doing tours of the Daintree River in his own small boat, as an interesting, less touristy way to see the river. Dan turned out to be a gem. He has lived near the Daintree River for many years and, although born in Oklahoma and a Johns Hopkins medical researcher in his former life, he has a great depth of knowledge about the flora and fauna of the river. He has even written a small book on the subject, Daintree By Night and Day, which we referred to as we explored.

At 2 PM, we met him at a small dock located just downriver from the ferry crossing (the only way to get across the river). His shallow boat had eight 360 degree swivel seats and an outboard motor. Probably in his later 60s, Dan had an easy congenial manner and exuded love of the river and surrounding rainforest and mangrove swamps. For the next two hours we were his only customers as we cruised downriver. He showed us mangroves of all kinds (an amazing 30 or so species found in the Daintree), other trees and flowers, multiple crocodiles sunning on the river banks, the jumping fish called mudskippers, and tiny crabs. He also showed us birds--rainbow bee-eater, collared kingfisher, brahminy kite (similar to our American eagle), long billed gerygone, and azure kingfisher. It was a feast of information and sights.

azure kingfisher

One of our favorite tidbits from Dan concerned the long missile shaped propagules--seeds of one species of mangrove. They fall from the tree already germinated and are complete with little leaves under a protective cap. The seed will land like a spear in the mud or, if it falls into water, will float horizontally until the right specific gravity causes it to turn vertical and root. How amazing is that?

top on........then top off.......voila, leaves

After two hours, Dan returned us to the dock and we drove to a nearby café for a light supper. Returning a little after 5, we found Dan and a young couple from Sydney waiting for us in the boat for another 2 hour river exploration. The tide had come in--yes, in the river--and it was like another world. The water lapped the trees and all the leggy mangrove roots were covered.

Dan buzzed us up the river in time to catch the nightly ritual of the cattle egrets coming back from the fields to the river to roost. The white birds would fly in over the tree tops in large groups, immediately drop to just inches above the river, and like a squad of fighter planes, zoom down river to one particular grove of trees. At that point they would flap and squabble and finally find branches on which to roost. We must have watched dozens of such groups come “home” for the night as we floated in the silent boat in the middle of the river in the deepening dusk. Dan estimated that 3,000 birds roost there after their days spent in the area’s fields.

As dusk faded into night, we cruised the river. We saw a large croc in the middle of the river and a small one hiding amongst the mangrove branches, we saw a fabulous papuan frogmouth (a gray owl-like looking bird with red eyes), and lots of tiny bats. We also did some spectacular star gazing in the black clear night. What a fascinating day!