Wild Queensland

What a crazy place! Aside from the leeches we saw on Mt Sorrow, and pulled, writhing and bleeding from our ankles, we saw deadly spiders, cassowaries, walking fish, crabs and frogs. That was a bit of a sloppy sentence: the adjective "deadly" applies only to spiders, cassowaries and some frogs. For starters, please observe this cassowary:


This cassowary, a remnant from the Jurassic or Bodacious Period, walks around the beach and rainforest with raptor-like talons and a I-Just-Woke-Up-On-The-Wrong-Side-Of-The-Bed attitude. The bird wandered into a clueless couple of tourists who turned their back on the big guy. S/he charged the female and lunged with a talon out, but missed.

Walking fish are far less deadly. These dudes hold water while on land much like sea turtles hold air under water.

Lots of fantastic spiders peppered the area just above our heads, but they were not a problem. Actually, most things in this rainforest don't bother humans at all. We did an excellent walking tour at night, during which we were told about native flora and fauna... not surprisingly, much of the native plants and animals are being killed by introduced animals such as the feral pig and the cane toad. Our guide mentioned that he used to like shooting feral pigs with a machine gun and beating cane toads with golf clubs... new humanitarian movements have stopped him.