Its electric-blue feathered neck draped in a bright raspberry-hued wattle, a beautiful southern cassowary gives me a hard stare from a few metres away. I’m momentarily mesmerised — then I spot the dagger-like claws beneath its lustrous black plumage.
I’d pulled into a seafront pitch at Etty Bay Caravan Park, south of Cairns on Queensland’s rainforest-fringed Cassowary Coast, and, right away, the region had lived up to its name. But after a few minutes, the bird thankfully resumed pecking at the fallen fruits lining the shoreline, in time with the thumping rhythm of the waves.
As a resident of New South Wales, I’d long itched to see this far-flung stretch of coast, known for its wild swathes of rainforest as well as its endangered, human-sized namesakes. But, reluctant to trade my trusty Subaru Forester for a campervan, I’d opted for the next best thing:
