Day 7 Daintree

G`day Mates, How ya going?
Knock knock your bus is here! Oh crap I thought it was coming at 7:55 not 7:30, No Worries!
thats how the morning started.We had to wake up matt though and he is always grumpy when you wake him up unexpectedly. It turned out ok though we were out the door in 5 and on the bus . We headed up to mossman gorge and seen alot of sugar cane fields on the way . there sugar cane fields are like corn fields in the states . every where you look there is one . they grow it on the same field for 5 years and then they switch crops for 1 year before replanting . It takes a year to produce and then they cut it and send it to the mill on light rail systems that is narrow guage . the cane then grows back without replanting . we seen them harvest some cane while driving to mossman . Mossman gorge is basically a riverbed coming though the rainforest down from the reservoir . It is pretty but not a gorge by usa standards. The water is crystal clear though and it feeds the town of port douglas and they use no chlorine in there water , It is only filtered to 2 microns . we then headed to the daintree reserve and crossed into the region on a car ferry across the daintree river . The scenery changes once you cross the river , The only power is by generator and the only water supply is rainwater . I am not sure how it works but it is designated some kind of world heritage site and if you owned property there before it was classified then you were grandfathered in and could stay . But the aussie government has been trying to by back the land and the program ran out of money. There are still alot of people and businesses in the area . I think most survive on tourists and some on farming like the daintree tea company. The guide said this was the oldest surviving rainforest at 120 million years old meaning it was never wiped out yet unlike many other rainforests or areas have been . They have a bird here called a cassowary that is in the emu and ostrich family. It is only native to this region and you are very lucky if you see one . They hadn't seen one in 3-4 weeks . we got a glimpse of one while driving to the daintree a very short glimpse though . We arrived at the park area and were on the hike into the forest and we seen a adult cassowary and her 2 chicks the chicks stayed well hidden so it was impossible to get a picture of them . if you move to fast or talk they run off very quickly . we then seen another juvenile cassowary cross the path in front of us and we got some great pictures of it . the guides said the record for 1 day was 6 cassowaries, and they have almost never seen any chicks. I guess we were really lucky .Also seen a golden orb spider on her web . We went for a boat ride with outback bob on his deluxe mota cruiser {insert deliverance scene here} up the cooper river and seen 3 crocs a bird and alot of mangrove trees and were bitten by some sand flies sorta like a blackfly . We had a good day and learned alot from the guides .We also picked up a coconut off 4 mile beach and smashed it open with sticks . You should have seen the people looking at us like were were idiots . That outer shell is hard as hell !!!! We are going to hang out until monday when we have our final snorkel trip planned and then head for home . Going to spend some time at the zoo tomorrow and back to the croc farm to see the rest of what we missed. G`day No worries !!!!