Strangler

A walk in the rainforest at the edge of the sea had me inspecting mangrove roots (parts of which grow upwards for oxygen), searching out giant spiders and eating a green ant. I was told it would taste of lemon, but since ants contain formic acid (knowledge acquired from learning that the Latin for ant was formica which in those days equalled kitchen bench, which bizarrerie made the whole combination of factoids unforgettable) I suspect that was just the effect of formic acid on my tongue.

I also stuck my camera inside a strangler fig. This intriguing lattice started life when a bird or animal dropped a seed that got caught in the branches of another tree. The strangler fig roots, supported by the trunk of the existing tree, grew downwards and gradually fused. As the fig out-competed its host for light and nutrients the original tree died and rotted leaving this structure to nourish its leaves high above in the sunlight.

It made me think about the stranglehold that toursim has on some of the hollow places I've seen, not least Cairns in which the port is dominated by tourist boats and every other shopfront in the centre seems to be selling tours. I had one sales pitch that the seller was clearly so used to doing it was faster than I could understand and I came away with a map with various things ringed and connected in coloured marker pen that meant absolutely nothing to me.