Daintree Rainforest Observatory

This week I went on a trip to the Daintree rainforest. It was probably the best trip I had so far, because of the people that also went to the camp. I shared a room with five mates and we had the best time ever.

Our trip started on Tuesday at 6:30 in the morning, when we left from school to our first stop: Hartleys Crocodile Farm. I was there 13 years ago, and still recognized the crocodile that was in front of the entrance of the farm. During our stop there, we had a boat tour through there human made lagoon, filled with about 30 crocodiles. We also got to see a feeding of a five meter crocodile in an eight by four meter pond. It was terrifying to see a half a ton animal submerge ten centimeters below the surface and not seeing it anymore.

After this stop, we had a two hour drive to our campsite (Daintree Rainforest Observatory) near Cape Tribulation. Shortly after arriving there we received an introduction to the site. Until about eight o'clock in the evening we had free time. At eight o'clock we went on a walk through the rainforest to set out camera traps. These "traps" are just wildlife cameras that take pictures, when they recognize movement infront of them. When we checked them the next day, they had taken pictures of pigs and cassowaries.

On the second day we went to set out bat traps in the morning and in that same arvo we coded small LED panels to flash in the pattern of a firefly. Then we put them into a bottle and shot them out of an air pressure gun. After shooting our missiles, we checked our bat traps and found two bats that had been caught (the traps are just vertically spread out fishing line strings and beneath that a plastic foil in the shape of a "V" to keep them trapped).

On the third day we went on a reef trip to Mackay Reef, which had a sand dune above the surface. It was a great day even though there were lots of waves and wind.

On the fourth day on the way back home, we stopped at Bruce Belchers Daintree River cruises, were we went on another crocodile tour. It was great since it showed the crocodile in their natural habitat.