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The Daintree
The Daintree National Park offers some spectacular scenery combining ancient rainforest and unspoilt beaches
The Daintree National Park in tropical north Queensland is one of the most spectacular areas in Australia, and you simply MUST visit this amazing place on your Australian travels !
And the Daintree has escaped both the 2011 floods and cyclone Yasi so it is ready for your holidays!
Thousands of hectares of the oldest rainforest in the world (100 million years older than the more famous Amazon) which run all the way from the mountains down to the pristine beaches of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, two World Heritage listed National Parks side by side for you to explore on a good variety of Daintree tours that are available, and you can sleep right inside this ancient jungle too as there is some amazing accommodation in the Daintree.
Because people have lived here since well before the Daintree National Park was declared their land was surrounded by the park in 1981 and now there are privately owned properties and accommodation places in the Daintree rainforest which can give you a magical experience of sleeping right inside an environment unchanged for 120 million years.
World famous nature lover David Attenborough has seen a lot of amazing places around the world, but the Daintree is on top of his favourites list, as he tells below:
The word Daintree can have several different meanings,
read below and click the links for more detailed information.
It all started with the river being discovered in the 1880's and
being named after Queensland geologist Richard Daintree.
Daintree
National Park consists of several sections with
the southern part of it easily reached at Mossman Gorge. Daintree
River - the river that separates the northern
section of the Daintree National Park from the rest of the
world. Daintree
Village is a small town on the Daintree river
a few kilometres upstream from the ferry. |
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Daintree Rainforest - this means
both the Daintree National Park and the rainforest on privately
owned land.
When the Daintree National Park was declared in 1981 there were
already quite a few privately owned properties in the area, and
the park was fitted in around them. The government has placed lots
of restrictions on this privately owned rainforest to protect it,
so owners are limited in what they can do with it. One bonus for
the travellers is that it is now possible to stay in small eco-lodges
right inside this magical rainforest environment, a much better
experience than just zipping through on a daytour as too many people
do. When we stay in the Daintree we always stay at Rainforest Hideaway,
our favourite Daintree
accommodation!
So, what's so special about the Daintree?
The dense jungle of the ancient World Heritage listed Daintree rainforest
The Daintree contains large areas of untouched wilderness
that has, according to scientists, not changed for at least 120
milion years, so visiting here is like stepping into a time machine
and although the Amazon might be more famous this jungle is six
times older.
In this ancient jungle live many plants and animals that are rare
or endangered and not found anywhere else, including some species
that had been considered extinct for millennia until they were discovered
to be living here.
Guided tours are available where experienced guides share their
expertise of this amazing eco system with you.
And even when you're not looking at it from a scientific point of
view the area is simply stunning in its beauty, untouched ancient
rainforest, pristine beaches and colourful coral and tropical fish,
a photographer's dream come true !
Accommodation in the Daintree
Rainforest Hideaway offers B&B accommodation in Cape Tribulation deep inside the Daintree rainforest
The Daintree offers a good choice of accommodation options from camping to backpackers hostels to holiday homes and resorts. But to make the most of your holidays in the Daintree consider staying with the locals in a small B&B to learn what it is like to live inside a rainforest with solar power and wildlife such as cassowaries and goannas around you.
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There are more Daintree bed and breakfast options available, and we recommend the website Daintree-holidays.com.au for the widest choice in Daintree accommodation and tourist information you will find anywhere.
Tours in the Daintree
The guide on Jungle Adventures nightwalk in Cape Tribulation showing a python in a tree
There is an excellent variety of tours available in
the Daintree that cover all areas of this spectacular region.
The Daintree rainforest is covered by guided day and nightwalks,
jungle surfing and fourwheeldrive tours, while the Great Barrier
Reef Marine Park has tours available such as snorkeling half day
trips and sea kayaking tours.
And in between those are tours such as the exotic fruit tasting
tours at Cape Tribulation, horse riding and crocodile spotting on
the Daintree river and Cooper Creek.
Although there are boardwalks in the National Park
and a hiking track up Mount Sorrow where you can go on your own
and take some nice photos it still adds another dimension to your
experience to go in to the rainforest with a guided tour.
The tourguides are all locals who have a deep knowledge of the Daintree
rainforest and can tell you all about how everything you see fits
together in this ancient eco-system, and another bonus is that they
are trained at spotting camouflaged animals that you would walk
past, and they know where they live.
These guided tours are also run on privately owned rainforest so
you get to see places that otherwise you would not see.
And as far as the snorkeling tours to the Great Barrier
Reef go; you simply can not come to north Queensland and not see
the reef, travelling Australia and bypassing the reef would be like
going in to Baskin Robbins and ordering vanilla!
Although there are quite a few places along the Queensland coast
where Great Barrier Reef tours are offered we recommend to do it
from Cape Tribulation. The reef here is closer to the coast than
further south, and with Cape Tribulation being a small place at
the end of the beaten track there are smaller numbers of tourists
going out here so less disturbance to the reef and spectacular coral
and fish!
Researching and booking tours can be a hassle in some places but in the Daintree it is easy, via the website Daintree-holidays.com.au you can see in a few clicks what the availability of all the Daintree Tours is and book them online with instant confirmation !
Transport to the Daintree
Hirecar on the way from Cairns to the Daintree along the spectacular scenic coastline
Despite lots of outdated travel information on the
web and guide books rest assured that access to the Daintree is
no problem.
The road has been sealed all the way to Cape Tribulation for ten
years now, and bridges were completed over creeks that used to rise
in the wet season so there is now all weather year round access
for any type of normal car all the way to Cape Tribulation. Only
if you want to go further north on the Bloomfield Track then you
will need a four wheel drive vehicle.
The first section of the Daintree National Park is
only an hours drive from Cairns at Mossman Gorge. After that it
is another half hour to either Daintree Village or de Daintree River
ferry.
Cape Tribulation is located 145 km. or 2.5 hours from Cairns, and
80km. or 1.5 hours from Port Douglas.
The Daintree river ferry operates continuously from 6 am till midnight
and costs $21.- return but there are multiple use passes available
for $40.- if you stay in the Daintree area for a few days.
Rental cars are the most convenient way to travel
up to the Daintree, north of Cairns the Cook Highway joins the coast
and between here and Port Douglas it is a spectacular drive on a
nice sunny day.
WIth your own hire car you can stop where you want and explore the
Daintree area much better.
Vroomvroomvroom
is the best place to start your search for a cheap hire car to the
Daintree.
Ofcourse you can search all the major car hire companies one after
the other but you'll find it saves you a lot of time to simply type
in your car hire location and dates, and get presented with an overview
where you see all available cars next to their prices to compare
on one page. Can it get any easier?
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There are buses that do package deals with a few
interesting stops along the way such as crocodile spotting on the
Daintree river, boardwalks in the National Park etc. Downside is
that their accommodation options are a bit limited and usually only
at backpackers hostels.
Companies such as Cape
Trib Connections, Tropics
Explorer, and Jungle
Tours do package deals where you get your return transfer
and one or two nights in a backpackers hostel all in one deal.
Tropical
Horizons does the same thing but less targeted at backpackers
and with more choice of accommodation.
There are also public transport buses that will take
you door to door from Cairns, airport, Port Douglas and all in between
all the way up to Cape Tribulation.
Country
Roads Coach Lines does a run all the way from Cairns to Cooktown,
so is a good option if you plan to head further north after your
Cape Tribulation stay. They depart Cairns at 07:00 in the morning,
arriving in Cape Trib about 10:10 but not every day, only on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday, at the time of writing this page the one
way fare Cairns to Cape Tribulation was $46.-
The return journey leaves Cape Trib at 10:10 on Tuesday, Thursday
and Saturday and arrives in Cairns around 13:30.
Sun Palm
Coaches leaves Cairns daily at 07:00 and 13:00, arriving in
Cape Tribulation around 10:25 and 17:25. They pick up from Cairns
airport, some Cairns accommodation, all Port Douglas accommodation,
(they only go into Daintree village on demand) and drop off at Rainforest
Hideaway. One way fare Cairns to Cape Tribulation is $78.- p.p.
, which makes renting a small car an attractive alternative considering
it gives you the freedom to go and stop where ever you want. The
return trips leave Cape Tribulation at 07:00, 10:30 and 18:00, getting
into Cairns at 11:00, 14:00 and 21:30.
If your time is limited you might want to do just
a day tour, in Cairns and Port Douglas there are several tour operators
that do guided
daytours to the Daintree and Cape Tribulation , such
as
This is only a good option if you really have run out of time, if
at all possible you should try to stay a few nights in some accommodation
in Cape Tribulation to experience sleeping and waking up in
the middle of this amazing rainforest.
Cairns is the nearest major airport to the Daintree
with many domestic and international flights landing here.
Try Zuji for an overview of all the best deals on flight Cairns.
Other info on the Daintree
The cassowary is an icon of the Daintree rainforest
The Daintree is one of the very few places on this
planet where you can come face to face with a cassowary.
This prehistoric bird still roams the forests, but unfortunately
its brain is not big enough to cope with 21 st century traffic,
and they need to cross the road sometimes.
So please when you drive off the ferry on the north side of the
river observe the speed limits and keep an eye out for these birds.
And when you do see them on the road don't stop (you might get hit
from behind by another car coming around the bend) and even more
important don't feed them, as otherwise they'll keep coming back
to the road for a feed and get runover sooner or later. Do not approach
them for that extra good close up photo, their powerful legs can
kick and disembowel you, especially when they have chicks with them
that they want to protect.
In north Queensland the box jellyfish stop swimming in the ocean in Australia's summer months from November till May, and during this time you should cool down in other places such as the beautiful freshwater creeks in the rainforest, or the swimming pool at your accommodation. Box jellyfish are only found close to shore, if you go out to the reef on a snorkeling tour you won't encounter them there.
The only churches in the whole Daintree region are located in Mossman, nothing north of the river.
As soon as you arrive at the Daintree river you should be croc-wise. This means you or especially your children should not stand on the water's edge while you wait for the ferry, crocodiles can swim under water without a ripple on the surface and burst out with enough speed and power to take a horse or a cow. You may not see crocodiles but they probably see you.
Don't let the above warnings get you too worried,
since National Parks has started placing crocodile warning
signs at the entry points to the beach people have started
believing that crocodiles will drag you off the beach in broad
daylight. |
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Fortunately there is a good choice of croc spotting tours available on the Daintree river so you can see these pre-historic creatures in safety, and have an expert guide spot them for you, because they camouflage very well....
Three of the four short boardwalks (Marrja, Dubuji
and Kulki) are wheelchair accessible.
At the fourth boardwalk (Jindalba) wheelchair access to the creek
is available from the exit end only, near the parking bays for people
with disabilities.
Cape Trib Farmstay has a wheel chair accesible cabin at Cape Tribulation.
Nice and Easy Cruises that does crocodile tours on the Daintree
river has a boat that can take wheelchairs.
Fuel is available at the only petrol station north of the river; Rainforest Village, 14 kilometres north of the ferry. If you're fourwheel driving then you wil find more fuel north of the Bloomfield Track.
There are a number of easy and even wheelchair accessible boardwalks in the Daintree National Park on the north side of the Daintree river, but the only walk that will satisfy the more serious energetic bushwalker is the Mount Sorrow Trail at Cape Tribulation, there is not much in between these two options.
There are no internet cables north of the Daintree
river and the only two choices for residents and businesses are
dialup (too slow) or satellite dish (expensive). While a satellite
dish may give some better speeds than dialup it is still slower
than your cable back home, and also gets charged according to usage,
both download and upload are counted. It is therefore risky to give
people free access to your internet connection as a few hours of
watching movies or doing big dowloads can quickly add up to big
bills.
There are computeres and/or wifi available at the Cape Tribulation
Shop, PK's, Ferntree and the Beachhouse.
In the wilderness of the Daintree north of the river
21st century services are few and far between.
If you can not live without mobile phone reception, you will have
to stay at Cape Kimberley in one of the holiday homes available
there.
Further north of here there is virtually no mobile phone reception,
but some spots where it will work half the time are on Thornton
Beach, on the rocky headland on the southern side of Cape Tribulation,
on the tower in the Discovery Centre, and on Alexandra Range lookout.
If you go out to the reef then your phone will often work out at
sea too, just remember to take it out of your pocket before you
jump in to go snorkeling.
There are quite a few different habitats around the
Daintree region so the mosquito varies from place to place.
If you are worried about mosquitoes don't let this stop you from
exploring the Daintree, in Port Douglas which is lowland with swamp
country you will find more mosquitoes than at Rainforest Hideaway
in Cape Tribulation, which surprisingly enough does not get any
mosquitoes at night despite being deep inside the rainforest!
If you need to do some shopping then your last chance
is at Mossman which has a Woolworth's supermarket and all the other
shops you might need on your travels. Further north it gets a bit
more limited, at Wonga Beach there is a pharmacy and some groceries
at the petrol station and Daintree Village has a small grocery shop.
There are three small grocery shops north of the Daintree river;
Rainforest Village, 14 kilometres north of the river, and Mason's
Cape Trib Shop and Friendly Grocer at Cape Tribulation.
Still need to find something that is not listed
on this page?
More comprehensive tourist information on the Daintree can be found
on Daintree-holidays.com.au
which has more information than above here, and also a wide range
of Daintree accommodation and Daintree tours to book online. And
when you still can't find it there email their online support.
This Google map shows you the Daintree region, go to satellite view to get an idea of how much rainforest there is.
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