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Tuesday 29 September: NOT on the reef!
So today was meant to be our long awaited trip to the reef. There are loads of companies that do these trips, but which to choose? After much research on Tripadvisor we had decided to ignore the larger companies (many of them have large powered catamaran ferry type things which carry 200+ people) and go for something a little smaller and hopefully more personal. We were promised the experience of a lifetime - well we certainly got that - but not the experience we expected! (as explained on yesterday's blog page).
So instead of going to the reef today we headed out towards the Malanda Falls visitor centre visiting on the way the Curtain Fig Tree and the Cathedral Fig Tree.
These fig trees are "Strangler Figs". They start life as epiphytes, seeds dropped by birds which nestle in a nook or cranny between the branches of another tree. There they begin life living off rain water and other material falling from the sky (falling leaves, etc). Eventually, when they are established, they start sending roots down towards the ground. When these roots take hold then the fig tree starts to develop even more, growing more and more roots around it's host tree. Eventually the fig takes over and the original host tree dies and rots away.
It is impossible to do justice to these trees with a photo - they are enormous - up to 40 or even 50 metres tall.