The Cassowary is an endangered bird found in the Northern tropical region of Queensland
On your drive up to Cairns, you begin to notice that the trees get taller, and there are sections where the forests are thicker. If you continue along the coastline to Cape Tribulation at the Daintree National Park, the trees become more tropical. You’ll soon find yourself surrounded by dozens of different types of tropical plants and wonder when it all changed.
It was on this drive from the start of the ferry crossing to my stop at Cape Tribulation Camping that I really wished I had someone to share this experience with. At one point, I saw a cassowary along the side of the road and I wanted so badly to tell someone but there was no one around me to share in the excitement.
I had seen life-size sculptures of the cassowary in Kuranda and at the ferry crossing, but seeing one in real life and in the wild is something else altogether. I wonder if the makers of the movie ‘Up’ were inspired by the bird. It’s body reminds me of an emu, but its head is like a turkey with a dinosaur spike and its feet look dangerously heavy, huge and like they also belong on a small dinosaur. It moved very slowly through the bush and away from the highway when more cars started slowing down to watch it.
And then when I saw the brilliant blue butterflies come out, again I wished there was someone to tell! They have postcards with these butterflies at most of the local tourist shops, but none of the pictures are even close to capturing how amazingly bright and brilliant they are. At first, I thought a feather from a tropical bird was falling from the trees, but then I saw the sunlight reflect off the wings. The butterfly fluttered about through the trees and was this bright blue speck dancing around the dark green tropical rainforest that enveloped the road. I saw three or four just on the drive to the campgrounds.
When I got to the camping ground, I changed into my bathing suit right away and headed for the beach. The water at Cape Trib is warm. I had wanted to go for a swim, but the beach is shallow for meters and meters. Instead, I alternated between sitting and floating in the waters.
The water at Cape Trib is clear enough to see right through and most of the bottom is just sand. So, I decided I’d go through a walk / wade through the waters towards a mangrove-like area. When I was a few meters away, the ground under the water began to look patchy and I figured it was just rocks and some seaweed. As I was walking though, I spotted something swim right in front of me less than a foot away… If I had been just one step ahead, I would’ve stepped right on top of a stingray!!! My whole body froze for a split second. And then I promptly turned around and headed back to the clear waters.
Cape Tribulation is beautiful.
Yeah… I want one of those Cassowary birds too. To compliment my emu. Better have a big suitcase to bring them back for me!
Umm… hmm… yeah no.
Hey Anny,
Thrilled to read of your encounter with the Cass and the beautiful blue Ulysses butterflies! Welcome to the North Qld experience. How about those sunsets huh?
Glad to see you’re “getting” what its all about.
Cheers
R
Thanks Richard!
hey be careful of those cassowary birds, they will attack if they feel threatened. For real. One fully took on my car once when i was living up there, and i tell you, the bird did NOT come off the worse.
OOO also, be careful where you swim, and i dont want to scare you (again) but there are jelly fish that will kill you called Iricongi jellyfish (or something, my spelling not so good) usually around from October to April but all the same — STAY IN THE SWIMMING NETS!!
…he he hee…!
The cassowaries seem so tame though!
And yes, I’ve been warned about the jellyfish but there aren’t any dangerous ones out yet. A couple of my fellow tourists got stung by little jellyfish but they were mostly harmless.
ACK! Be careful Anny! Sara is freaking me out
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*sigh* Sara, see what you’re doing to my poor sister? LOL
Ang, you wouldn’t want to hear about the crocodile and shark stories I heard from Sam today then! By the way, some sharks CAN swim backwards and will swim onto shore even when there’s only a few inches of water. Sam saw a neighbour’s dog get eaten by one!!
OMG! You saw a cassowary! I went to all the places you did, even walked through the rainforest and I still didn’t see one.
Wildlife are fickle things. I did see the Ulysses butterfly though– I agree that no words/pictures can do it justice. It looks like a fluttering blue light.
Those uber dangerous jellyfish won’t crop up until about November, so you’re good.
But still watch out for stingrays, as you noticed, they’re pretty hard to spot until they take to getting the hell away from a giant descending person foot. 
I thought it was really funny you call that swirl a sand worm! My tour guide said that those are actually caused by a type of sand worm burrowing into the sand. The little mounds of sand balls you would have seen are caused by little crabs.
Ahh good to know (about the little sand balls)!