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  A Trip To The Prehistoric Past

It was like going back in time to the foggy mists of a prehistoric planet.

I visited the oldest rainforest in the world in Far North Queensland, Australia, where dinosaurs once roamed and their toothy descendents still thrive. Six times as old as the Amazon, the untouched portions of the area looked much the same as they did 120 million years ago.

The starting point was the tropical town of Cairns (pronounced "cans"), which has an international airport with direct flights to and from major cities on the U.S. west coast. Cairns means tombstones and refers to the early history of the sugarcane town when many residents died from malaria. There is no malaria in the area today, but dengue fever (also carried by mosquitos) erupts occasionally.

The 34-mile drive north of Cairns followed a coastline where rainforest mountains dropped down to breathtaking palm-lined beaches. One of the most beautiful was Four Mile Beach just before I reached laid-back Port Douglas. The picturesque village lay at the edge of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of North Queensland, which includes the Daintree rainforest and the Cape Tribulation wilderness. Port Douglas was the cultural center of the area and boasted a playhouse founded by British actress Diane Cilento.

Some distance inland from Port Douglas I strolled under the canopy of the Daintree rainforest on a boardwalk. This is a remnant of Gonwonda, one of the two original continents that formed when the planet was still young. Of the 19 oldest plant families on earth today, 12 are found in the relatively small area. The local flora includes large tree ferns and other cycads, ancient ancestors of palm trees that served as a major food source for herbivorous dinosaurs.

I was amazed to see such lush foliage on a continent known for its vast desert wastelands. In Australia rainforests cover less than one percent of the land and they get up to 200 inches of rain each year.

The boardwalk was a good idea for several reasons. On the forest floor I might have encountered one of the top ten most poisonous snake species in the world, THE most deadly spider (the funnel web spider) or the Stinging Tree, which has been known to kill a full-grown horse. It was best to play it safe in this part of Australia since death would have spoiled my whole vacation.

About 30 miles past Port Douglas was the Daintree River ferry, the only way across the river. It cost $16 and the ride took only five minutes. I noticed "No Swimming" signs with a crocodile drawing at the ferry terminal. Salt-water crocodiles range from the ocean to far inland on rivers. Near Cairns I had seen one in a zoo that measured 9 meters long (that's 29.5 feet!). Salties, as they are called by locals, are the largest crocodiles in the world and kill humans every year in Australia. Fresh water crocs (freshies) are much smaller and considered relatively harmless.

The road on the north side of the Daintree river turned to dirt as it entered the Cape Tribulation wilderness. I followed a young couple in a Porsche, which I was surprised to see on such a rough track.

The driver soon lost me on the winding road and I punched the gas pedal to catch up. As I whipped around a bend, I saw a huge bird standing in the road and slammed on my brakes. It was a cassowary and I had stopped only a few feet from it. The bird just looked at me and refused to move out of the way. It was five feet tall with the biggest claws I had ever seen -- big enough, I read later, to disembowel a human with one swipe. I backed up the rental car and drove around him. Cassowaries are an endangered species and I could have been fined several thousand dollars if I had accidentally killed or injured one.

I finally caught up with the Porsche, which was idling in front of a stream while the driver thought about risking a crossing. When he plowed through the water, I saw it was only a foot or so deep and I followed with no problem.

By the time I came to the third crossing, I noticed dark clouds in the mountains upstream. The Porsche had already crossed and vanished, but I knew what those clouds meant. It was raining up there and sooner than later all that water would rush downhill and swell the streams, perhaps making them impassable. If I pressed on toward Cooktown, I could get stranded between streams and have to spend the night in the bush. With no food or safe drinking water. Worrying about creepy crawlies that might get into the car while I was asleep.

No thanks. I walked to the nearest beach for one last look at Cape Tribulation, then I turned the rental car around and started back to the ferry. I made it just before the sky opened up in a cloudburst.

Recommended accommodations: Daintree-Cape Tribulation Heritage Lodge
http://www.destinationcairns.com.au/a_daintree.html