Daintree National Park
It is in the Wet Tropics and does not have the 'real' Cape York rainforest like Iron Range, but the Wet Tropics rainforests are actually lusher than the ones on the actual peninsula.
They are also obviously easier accessible with sealed road in all the way.
And they are consequently much more visited, which also means they have much more tourist facilities.
Things you can do include some great rainforest walks - all kinds from boardwalks to steep mountain climbs, swimming in rainforest waterholes and four wheel driving.
Mossman
Gorge Section
As
you drive north from Cairns and past Port
Douglas,
the national park
starts at Mossman.
This is the southern section of the park, the
so-called Mossman Gorge
section,
which is actually larger than the
northern section but seems smaller because only a small part of it -
the Mossman Gorge itself - is accessible.
Cape
Tribulation Section
The
northern section of Daintree National Park - the Cape
Tribulation section - starts at Daintree
River in the south and ends at Kulki - the actual headland of Cape
Tribulation,
just north of the Cape Tribulation Village. The whole area is quite
commercialised but still lovely.
Daintree Plants
There is
a
huge amount of different plants, with 400 species of trees only. Some
typical Daintree plants include fan palms, lianes and vines (wait a
while vine), ferns (including tree ferns) and cycads, stinging trees,
strangler figs, orchids, and some primitive plants from the ancient
Gondwana continent.
Daintree
Animals
There are also a lot of species of animals (even if many are nocturnal
and not easy to see).
Some typical ones are tree kangaroos, striped possums, ringtail possums, spotted tailed quolls, dingoes, spectacled flying foxes, tube nosed bats, white tailed rats and green tree frogs.
Daintree Birds
There are also a lot of species of birds.
Some of the
typical ones are
cassowaries, bush turkeys, orange footed scrubfowls, sunbirds, double
eyed fig parrots, metallic starlings, imperial pigeons, wompoo fruit
doves, laughing kookaburras and many species of kingfishers.
Daintree
National Park Activities
The things you can do include wildlife and bird watching, camping,
walking the beaches or walking up Mount Sorrow, there are walks to
lookouts and boardwalks through rainforest and mangrove habitat.
There
are rainforest waterholes to swim in, even four wheel drives.
Tours
in Daintree
National Park
There are also different tours, such as rainforest walks, wildlife and
bird watching, four wheel driving, horse riding, fishing and
boating.
One of the
best things to do is to take a crocodile
tour
on
Daintree River - where you have good chances to see the deadly
saltwater
crocodiles.
Daintree
Rainforest
Daintree rainforest is quite
special.It is the largest remaining tropical lowland rainforest in Australia.
It is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the world.
And it is old.
The rainforest around Cape Tribulation is the oldest rainforest in the world.
Daintree National Park, which is a great place to discover those rainforests, has two sections - the southern Mossman Gorge and the northern Cape Tribulation section.
The Mossman Gorge section is larger, but only a small area is accessible.
I remember the gorge from the time you could come here and have the whole place for yourself.
Not anymore, but the beautiful walk is still here. There are some massive buttress roots and really old giant trees, and some great swimming in the gorge.
The northern section - Cape Tribulation - starts north of Daintree River.
In the southern end of it you will cross a mountain range and the road winds through some beautiful dense rainforest. A good place to stop and learn about it is Daintree Discovery Centre.
In the northern end of the Cape Tribulation section, the landscape becomes flatter and you drive through some more open country with farms, accommodation, as well as some rainforest.
Daintree
Animals
So what
are the typical Daintree animals?The funny thing is on a brief visit there seem to be none!
You can walk all the boardwalks in Cape Tribulation and do the walk in Mossman Gorge, and by now you would have expected to see an animal but nope.
And that despite the fact that the Wet Tropics rainforests are the richest on animal species in Australia.
Yes, that's how it is up here - in the middle of the day it's too hot for most birds and animals - your chances are better early in the morning, late in the afternoon, or even night time.
Daintree Mammals
Non-marsupial mammals (to make it simple) include echidna and platypus, dingo, flying foxes (spectacled, black and little red), bats (tube nosed bat, blossom bat), and native rodents (white tailed rat).
Daintree Birds
The most famous Daintree bird is the Southern Cassowary. It is not very easy to come across but it is not impossible - over the years I have seen a few crossing the roads while driving through Daintree rainforests.
Other typical Daintree birds include bush turkeys, orange footed scrub fowls, helmeted friarbirds, sulphur crested cockatoos, black butcherbirds, bush stone curlews, metallic starlings, lotusbirds, wompoo doves, imperial pigeons, double eyed fig parrots, sunbirds, victoria's riflebirds, and different kingfishers, including both of the two species of kookaburras - laughing kookaburra (which is also found in the southern parts of Australia) and blue winged kookaburra (which is only found in northern Australia).
Daintree Reptiles
The most famous Daintree reptiles are the deadly saltwater crocodiles. But there are also many different lizards, dragons and geckoes including boyd's forest dragon, eastern water dragon, and leaf tailed geckoes. And there are many different snakes including carpet python, and amethystine python - Australia's largest snake.
Daintree Frogs
Frogs include white lipped tree frog, northern barred frog, and litter frog, to name a few. The most typical amphibians are many different species of green tree frogs. But the introduced cane toad is also found here.
Daintree Insects
Insects are so many but I could mention green tree ants, leaf and stick insects, praying mantis, some lagre cockroaches, rhino beetles, and lots of beautiful butterflies, including two very large ones - Ulysses butterfly, and Cairns birdwing.
Crocodile
Tour on Daintree
River
Daintree
River is a great place to take a crocodile tour.At least that is my experience.
It's the only time I have taken a tour, and there were no problems to see a big fat five metre croc from close by.
The operators know where to go and they will stop for a long while and let you have a good look.
There are many different tours available.
Prices, trip lengths and vessels can vary - all the tours are listed in full detail in the Destination Guide.
Crocodile
Tours from Cairns
and Port Douglas
If you are in Cairns
and
looking at how to get up to Daintree to see wild crocodiles,
you may want to
check out the following opportunities. I think they are great because they also take you to see other places on the way ;-)
P. S. Before I took my crocodile tour, I thought it would be that "crocodile jumping tour" where a piece of meat is hung off the boat, making crocs to jump out of the water and trying to catch it.
But I learned that they don't do it in Daintree because it is a national park. You can see the jumping croc action at Hartleys Crocodile Adventures near Wangetti between Cairns and Port Douglas.
Daintree Rainforest Facts
On this
page you have some Daintree rainforest facts.* It is the world's oldest rainforest - about 120 million years old and a remnant of the ancient Gondwana continent.
* The area was originally inhabited by Kuku Yalanji Aboriginal people.
* It was named after Richard Daintree - an English geologist who spent 18 years in Australia in the 1800s.
* It belongs the Wet Tropics rainforests, which have been World Heritage listed since 1981.
* 1981 is also the year when Daintree became a national park.
* The area covers about 1200 square kilometres - that is only about 0.1% of Australia's land surface.
* It has about 12,000 insect species.
* It has 65% of all butterfly species in Australia.
* It has 30% of all marsupial species in Australia.
* It has 18% of all bird species in Australia.
* It has 23 endemic frog species.
* It has 18 endemic reptile species.
* It has 13 endemic bird species.
* It has nine endemic reptile species.
* The rare black dingo lives in Daintree rainforest.
* Some of the oldest Daintree plants are ferns and cycads.
* Strangler fig is a tree that grows on other trees, finally killing the host tree by the time its hanging roots touch ground so it can support itself.
* There are two different species of stinging trees in Daintree rainforest.
* Up to 10 tonnes of litter per hectare can fall on its fall every year.
* Its main river - Daintree - is 140km long.
* Daintree has been lucky with tropical cyclones, but some bigger ones did happen in 1920 and 1934.
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