{"id":155,"date":"2012-12-30T17:40:29","date_gmt":"2012-12-30T09:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.joel.net.au\/?p=155"},"modified":"2026-06-22T21:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T13:33:11","slug":"eating-green-ants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/2012\/12\/30\/eating-green-ants\/","title":{"rendered":"Eating Green Ants"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sunrise
Sunrise at Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Cape
Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Cape
Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On my last day at Cape Tribulation, I decided to splurge a little on a few outings. It does seem that most activities require some form of payment here. I also discovered there was a petrol station on this side of the ferry near the Daintree Rainforest Discovery Centre, an interpretation centre I stumbled across on my way in on the first day. Planning on doing the Bloomington 4WD Track up to Cooktown, I knew it would be safer to fill my tank before I left – just in case I had to turn around and exit the area via ferry due to impassible roads. The interpretation centre was nice, but not that big. My feeling at the time was that it was probably overpriced, but they did give me a discount, and I did learn quite a bit when I was there.<\/p>\n

\"Bird's
Bird’s Nest Fern in the rainforest at Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rainforest
Rainforest at Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rainforest
Rainforest at Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rainforest
Rainforest at Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rainforest
Rainforest roots at Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rainforest
Rainforest at Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rainforest
Rainforest at Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Giant
Giant Golden Orb-weaver (Trichonephila pilipes) cleaning web in rainforest in Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Giant
Giant Golden Orb-weaver (Trichonephila pilipes) cleaning web in rainforest in Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I visited a nicer swimming hole in the afternoon that required a bit more effort to get into. It was definitely worth it, with deep, crystal-clear waters, big fish, and far fewer people. On the hike in, I came across several Cassowary dung piles (huge) – something I learned to recognise at the interpretation centre – which showed they really were in the area and not just folklore.<\/p>\n

\"Swimming
Swimming hole upstream from crocodiles in rainforest in Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Cassowary
Cassowary scat in the rainforest at Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the evening, I went on a night walk up in a jungle\/rainforest in the hills, which turned out to be quite good. We saw lots of things that tested what I had learned at the interpretation centre earlier that morning. Lots of bats, a big bird, forest dragons large and small (a baby), a couple of frogs – big and a small one who devoured a spider while we watched, a mouse hiding in a tree hole to protect itself from snakes while eating, a small marsupial that was slightly larger that was also hiding in a tree hole, a Bandicoot, lots of giant spiders including the worlds largest web spider (huge, but not really interested in people), glow-in-the-dark fungi, and lots of interesting rainforest trees and plants.<\/p>\n

\"Juvenile
Juvenile Forest Dragon in rainforest in Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Giant
Giant Golden Orb-weaver (Trichonephila pilipes) cleaning web in rainforest in Daintree National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among the more amusing events of the day, I started out witnessing these strange green ants crawling all over the top of my car while I was putting my bike away. They looked potentially painful, so I paid close attention to the information presented on them at the interpretation centre. They were presented as poisonous to other animals (mainly insects) but only mildly painful to humans. When I asked about them on the night walk, the guide insisted on tracking some down to show that you could use them to make a tasty lemonade-like drink. So there I was with a bunch of others popping live green ants in our mouths to see what they tasted like. The same ones I feared earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

Today’s Drive<\/strong>
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Map of the route \u201cEating Green Ants\u201d: 67,218 m, 984 m of climbing and 942 m of descent, elevation between -9 m and 100 m, time 24:23:14. It is a loop that starts and ends at -16.06926, 145.46253 (latitude, longitude).<\/p>