Yesterday saw us with another road trip, this time about an hour's drive south of Wauchope. Joy knew of a good picnic spot with some protected rainforest complete with boardwalk and information boards.
We arrived just in time to have our picnic - left overs from the platter the day before. As it was such a lovely day it was good to see lots of others with the same idea. Luckily there was still one table left for us.
After enjoying our picnic we headed off to walk through the protected rainforest. It was easy walking along a boardwalk with lots of good information about the vegetation and animal life. The first sign was very much a warning one about The Giant Stinging Tree. This tree is a colonising plant in the forest but is very dangerous. It is covered in hollow silica tipped hairs, and if brushed against or touch cause severe pain that can last for months. It has been discovered that time doesn't diminish the toxicity of the hairs and even after 30 years it has been found that dried leaves is still capable of delivering a sharp sting.
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| The Giant Stinging Tree |
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| Joy standing in the buttress of the Moreton Bay Fig. |
The feature trees in this area are the Moreton Bay Fig Trees. They grow to 60metres high with their main feature being the huge butressing root system. These trees are a key source of food in the rainforests and though the fruit is edible it is unpalatable and dry. However the Greyheaded Flying foxes or fruit bats must enjoy them as there must of been hundreds of them hanging from the tree tops.
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| Spot the fruit bats. |
Also living in the brush were bush turkeys. These interesting fellows create huge piles of leaves and bush litter into large mounds for their nests. They did this by kicking with their legs and could move quite amount in a short period of time.
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| Bush turkey and its mounded nest. |
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