Side-by-side

Friday, A. and I went with a couple of colleagues to Mossman Gorge, part of Daintree National Park. This is part of the Wet Tropics, another World Heritage site (besides the Great Barrier Reef). Queensland really does have an embarrassment of riches -- the tourist brochures make much of the "fact" that this is the only place with two so different World Heritage sites side-by-side. Although, the reef is about 30 miles east of the coast line and the wet tropics are 20 miles west. So, they're actually about 50 miles apart. But ... what is 50 miles considering that we traveled 8000 miles to get there?

You've probably heard the phrase "teeming with life". Believe me, you don't realize what that means until you've been to a tropical rainforest. There are trees with vines growing on them, and parasitic plants growing on the vines. The soil is too water logged? No problem -- the roots stick out of the ground so that they can pull in air.