Townsville has one of the largest Australian Army bases. During WWII there were over 5,000 American military stationed there. The symbol of the city is the cliff called Castle Hill. Very predominant landmark.
Our excursion was to drive to the Rainforest. Driving out of the city, a few landmarks were identified. The most notable was the hotel affectional called the Sugar Shaker. Then it was off on a long drive. So just before arriving the bus made a stop in an area where we had a tea and a bathroom break. The place was called the Frosty Mango.
I hope Alyssa Mulcahy sees this blog. She blogged while staying in Uganda and had several stories about having fresh mangoes from the trees. The trees in the background are mango trees. I think he just fell out of one!
The Naturalist guiding our group explained how the rainforest works. Without providing all of the details let me explain this picture. At the top of the trees is an almost solid canopy of leaves and branches. There was very little sunlight that got through to the ground. Every year some of the fruit trees have ripe fruit that gets eaten by the birds in the forest. Then they drop the seeds as they fly over the canopy. Some stick to the wet leaves and they grow. Then they shoot vine down towards the ground. It eventually becomes a root. And then this new tree grows wild and wraps around its original tree until it strangles the host. Our naturalist said the tree in the picture will probably die from this in about 200 years. I volunteered to come back to check!
The most fascinating tree was the Quandong tree. In order to get enough nutrients is spreads the base out over a very large area with lots of narrow arms. This tree was huge and we couldn’t see the top because lots of other foliage surrounded it. I had never been to a rainforest before which made this excursion really interesting. We both wore hiking boots and were very glad. The paths were at times steep, full of leaves and always wet. Especially wet this year. Townsville and the area was flooded just 4 weeks ago. Many of the houses and even shopping centers were still closed for remodeling. In something like 10 days of rain they had about 3 meters of rain (almost 10 feet). I am glad we weren’t there then.
Johnson's Travel 