Tag: Daintree

Daintree River views

Driving north from Mossman one encounters a sign pointing right to the famous Daintree ferry and Cape Trib, or left to Daintree Village on the river a few kilometres upstream.

The Village isn’t very big – a pub, a few shops and houses, some tourist accommodation and a jetty for the boaties. We stayed there overnight so that we could take an evening wildlife-spotting cruise with Daintree River Wild Watch, which was so good that we repeated it early next morning.

Daintree Village motel
Daintree Village Lodge

I came home with so many bird photos that they need a separate post, but here are some river views for context.

Daintree River Views

Dawn and dusk are the best times for birds and for atmospheric landscape photos, and I really loved the morning mists.

Daintree Village view
Misty dawn on the Daintree

Continue reading “Daintree River views”

Bergstrom’s Orange, Daintree ulcers and rainforest

Bergstrom’s Orange

Carolyn Little, 2015

A book described on its back cover as a “contemporary thriller [which] explores the growing interest in biodiscovery and the modern crime of biopiracy, against the back-drop of the beauty and challenges of the Daintree World Heritage site … and [the] popular resort world of Port Douglas” recently leapt from the shelf of my local library into my hand. It lived up to its promise, too, being both entertaining and informative.

The (perfectly valid) scientific background to the story is a search in the Daintree rainforest for a botanical cure for the affliction known locally as the Daintree ulcer or Mossman ulcer. It is a nasty flesh-eating ulcer with no known prevention or cure, caused by a bug (Mycobacterium ulcerans) related to those which cause leprosy and tuberculosis. Continue reading “Bergstrom’s Orange, Daintree ulcers and rainforest”