NORTH QUEENSLAND is famed for its beaches and the magnificent Great Barrier Reef, but it’s also blessed with extensive rainforests. A bonus is that these are home to the remarkable cassowary.
This large flightless bird, about the size of an emu, looks strikingly odd, having a brilliant blue-and-purple head capped by a horny tapered protuberance (to assist with travel through the dense foliage), amber eyes and red neck wattles above a plump black body.
In Cairns I sign up for a two-day hike, hoping to see one of these elusive creatures. The adventure begins from a remote trail head as we follow a narrow mud path. Our guide, Mark, moves silently ahead, stopping occasionally to look or listen. I imagine he spots the birds regularly, so I’m a little shocked when he admits he’s seen only two in 30 years. I resign myself to never seeing one.
But there are plenty of distractions, as the rainforest is mind- bogglingly full of life. That night we string hammocks from a strangler fig, an extraordinary parasite that begins as a seedling, high in a host tree, before dropping roots that encircle and strangle its host.
After lunch we enjoy a dip in an emerald pool. Then, feeling fantastically refreshed and light of foot, we follow Mark to reach the trail head all too quickly.
Taking a last look back to the magical rainforest world, I spy a flash of blue. Straining, I see a neck and then an intense beady eye below an odd horny crest, before the phoenix-like bird turns its head and disappears. I run to tell the others excitedly about my sighting. “And it was this high?” says Mark, looking sorrowful for an instant before breaking into a broad grin. “Fair dinkum, mate!”
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