Monday 13 August 2007

The Cathedral Fig or Strangling Fig


Today, we are re-joining the Schaussengraben Road Show on the road to Cooktown in FNQ. That's local-speak for, wet and tropical Far North Queensland, - the land of "I never want to go home" !

"This huge 'Strangling Fig' was amazing, especially when it started with a seed the size of a sesame seed and now is about 500 years old. I also found that you have to watch out for those forest vines... one almost got me but I got away safely."

Perhaps we may soon see some of the browner and dryer bits of the Wide, Brown Land.
On Google Earth; go to 15 28 06.87 South; and 145 14 55.32 East.

18 comments:

Cheltenhamdailyphoto said...

What an amazing sight! You can just imagine if you stayed there too long, one of those vines twining around your feet - eek!

J'ai fait une autre image maintenant, Monsieur! Encore... grr Blogger!

M.Benaut said...

That's true, Lynn. Herr Schaussengraben nearly got eaten by the thing. Sehr gefährlich. (Très dangereux)

Michael Salone said...

That is really amazing! Can you imagine all of the life that must live between those vines, roots and such? I imagine if Lynn looked hard enough she might even come across a rat!

M.Benaut said...

Too true, Michael, except she is more likely to come across a Bilby or a Bandicoot. These are native small marsupials that are clean, timid and becoming endangered. Actually, Australia has very little in the way of dangerous creatures. One is never afraid to go most anywhere. Naturally we have snakes, but I have only ever seen 3 snakes in natural habitat; ever.
Naturally, though, if Lynn were to come down under, I am quite sure we could russle-up something scarey; even if it really wasn't !!!
I'll get right on to it.

M.Benaut said...

From Wikipedia,,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilby

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandicoot

Cheltenhamdailyphoto said...

Oooh Michael trust you to come up with such thoughts. Ugh. Also trust you M. Benaut to add ghastly details to scare me. You big, bad, nasty boys you. Brr. I'm telling Mme.

travelphilippines said...

wow that is sooo huge i belive that is called Baliti here in the Philippines and fearded by many as they belive it is the home of enchanted creatures.

Michael Salone said...

Oooh, do tell more travelphilippines. It sounds like a good scary story to tell here. Lynn - are you listening?

Michael Salone said...

Loved the links Monsieur. How could an English lass ever be afraid of them?

Jules said...

Yes I have seen these in Nth Queensland and they are amazing.

travelphilippines - the locals here also believe that spirits live in places like this.

m benaut - It is very dangerous this blogging business - what with strangling figs and charging rhino beetles - I'm going to have to check my life-insurance policy!!!!

Anonymous said...

There, there Lynn. There's nothing to be afraid of: only fear itself (and pain of course; hence my absence for a while)

Monica said...

Hi Mme&M.Benaut !
Just a quick hello, I'm back from my vacation and have to catch up with lots of posts!

Steve Buser said...

Such interesting stuff. I wish the guys at Google would make it a little easier to zoom in on geocode like you have here. I found the easiest way do it (for me) was to push the marker button and then enter the latitude and longitude you gave into the properties of that marker zooms right in.

You can put latitude, longitude in the search box if it is in decimal format but that involve a few more steps to convert it.
--steve buser
New Orleans Daily Photo

Marie said...

Oh la la je n'ai jamais rien vu de pareil. That is so strange. Wonderful photo!

M.Benaut said...

Steve B,
Thank you for this helpful tip. It's always nice when someone gives a reference to G-Earth and you can go directly there.
I will practise this method and try it out on you all soon, thanks again for your trouble and for calling in.

Ame said...

WOW!

AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING!!!

I WANNA COME SEEEEEEEEEEE THAT!!!!

Love nasty boys! LOL! =)))

MME! Sorry to hear you've had a rough time...hope you're back "in the pink" SOON!

HUGS!

Take care!
;)xo

Crow said...

interesting post

Stefan Jansson said...

That looks amazing!