Just one word, BEA-utifull. It was just one big dream. I went with a tourguide and he had a big share in the amount of fun. He was really good, he knew so much about all the flora and fauna. If you go there, bring photocamera and filmcamera!! The only problem is that you can't capture the beauty on photo. I give it a big 9!

Daintree rain forest. Do the night walk and croc tour. The night walk was good fun and you get to see plenty of the local wild life, huntsman, snakes, various insects and lizards... well worth it. Not great internet coverage and its quite expensive so relax and forget about the outside world for a few days.

A boat trip up the Daintree river is a must and make sure your memory card is empty before you go.

for a great tour company with the best experience in this area I definately recommend Billy Tea Bush safaris - small groups, great guides and a unique lunch spot. You even get to do a boat cruise on the very Croc infested Daintree River

Routing through the options at the tourism desk of the hotel this morning, my eyes fell on an advert for a company based out in the Daintree National Park who specialise in taking people for horseback rides in the rainforest. I really should have learned not to take anything at face value after nearly killing myself yesterday, but this did sound like an opportunity to start the New Year by relaxing and taking in the beautiful scenery of Northern Queensland - after all, what could possibly go wrong sitting on the back of a horse looking at scenery? Well, let me tell you I've come away from today with a newfound respect for jockeys and horse riders everywhere! The minibus turned up to collect me mid-morning, and was already so packed that I had to cram myself into about a foot of space at the back. This seemed promising - I was obviously embarking on such a popular pastime that people were lining up to be a part of it. We were driven out to the stables deep in the forests out towards Cape Tribulation and as the bus pulled into the car park, it all looked delightfully serene. There were horses grazing in the fields, forests and rolling hills all around, I thought I could hear the trickle of a nearby stream - it all seemed too good to be true. Our driver parked the bus and led us into the main building where we were given refreshments and quizzed on our general level of riding experience. We were then taken through to the stables where horses had been prepared according to our various skill levels - Mine, a mare by the misleadingly charming name of Duchess, was supposed to be an easy going ride as I had put on my form that I had only ever ridden a horse once before and had a very basic understanding of how to do so. As it turned out, Duchess proved to be utterly uninterested in doing anything which didn't involve eating or chasing the other horses. Despite all my best efforts, I quickly came to the conclusion that there was slightly more change of the Pope converting to the Church of Scientology than there was of me getting my horse to take the slightest notice of me. The other horses seemed to be happy to trot along, heads held high while their riders gazed around at the scenery and said things like "ooh, isn't that pretty?" at passing landmarks. Duchess was much more interested in stopping at every tiny clump of grass and yanking the reins out of my hand in order to lower her head and have a serious munch while everyone else disappeared into the distance. Then I discovered another quality to Duchess - she seemed to seriously have it in for several of the other horses. As we trotted along the trail, whenever a particular light coloured mare overtook her she would bite them on the bum as they passed. Then we entered an open field and Duchess decided it would be a good time to show off her horse racing tendencies, taking off like a bat out of hell with me clinging to the reins for dear life while other members of the party looked at me with a newfound respect as though I might actually have had any control over what was happening. If I tugged on the reins to get her to slow down, Duchess would begrudgingly do so and then look around at me as if to say "You're really in for it now" before taking off again five seconds later. Nevertheless, once I got used to having absolutely no control over my horse and the terror had turned into passive acceptance, I found it quite exciting to be the only one whose horse seeed to want to have some fun. I was riding high in the saddle, somehow managing not to fall off, and finding that I was actually starting to really enjoy myself. At least, I was until Duchess came to her favourite snack stop which happened to involve dragging me under a low hanging tangle of nettles and branches without stopping to wonder if I would fit. After being scraped and prodded from all directions by thorns and sharp bits of twig, I came out of the experience with multiple cuts and bruises and a lovely looking scrape mark across my throat which must make me look as though I need to speak to the Samaritans. Next time I come up with a plan for a nice day of relaxation which includes the words "what could possibly go wrong?" please think seriously about slapping me.

You can read my complete travel journals at www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer and www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer2

I'm glad to report that the rainforest around the Daintree River has not only been given National Park status, but when somebody proposed that a major coastal road should be ploughed through the area, World Heritage put their foot down and slapped a conservation order on it. Red tape being what it is, however, the foot didn't fall quite quick enough to prevent the coastal road going ahead, at least in part. Today, it is possible to stay at places such as the wonderfully remote Crocodylus YHA Lodge in the middle of the forest, and take a few days out from the big city to get back to nature. Some would say that, at the rate we're going, our children's children will be asking us what a tree looks like, so get back to nature while you can (1). The accommodation is made up of basic, hostel style dorms sleeping 14 people per room. The rooms themselves are nothing more than big tents in the middle of the forest with mosquito netting around the outside, which means that I am able to lie in bed at night and look right out on nature at work. Sometimes, when it's really dark, nature will come right up to the edge of my bed and stare at me until I open my eyes and jump out of my skin. There is a path leading from the tents to a series of canopies under which are a kitchen, lounge area and a basic restaurant consisting of wooden tables and a stove - and if, for some reason, you get bored late at night when there is no longer enough light to explore the forest by, you don't have to worry because somebody from the sixties has stopped by and dropped off a complete library of Andy Capp books. The place is run as a family business - although, naturally, the family gets to live miles away while staff do all the hard day to day work. To be honest, I think we've got the better deal anyway. All power is supplied by an on-site generator as there is no electricity this far out from civilisation. At Midnight, the generator is switched off and everything becomes pitch black. Nights in the tents are very dark indeed, the forest around me full of the exotic cries of unseen creatures, and the ground below me making unsettling slithering noises. Nobody in their right mind is going to get up and walk in pitch black through the forest to the kitchen in the middle of the night, and there's no smuggling in a midnight feast as no food is allowed in the tents either. There are apparently mice in the forest that can smell a tiny scrap of food from miles away and will gnaw through everybody's bags during the night to get at it. There is a walking trail through the surrounding forest, and this is marked by an orange rope which takes me on a three Kilometre hike through the undergrowth - although it is recommended that we inform reception before heading off into the forest, as there are supposed to be venomous snakes and Saltwater Crocodiles all around us. Lovely. There is also a beach at Cow Bay, a little down the road, but we've been told that we mustn't go swimming because it is Box Jellyfish season and the Box Jellyfish is one of the most deadly sea creatures known to man. One sting can paralyse and kill a man in thirty seconds and the things are translucent just to make sure you don't actually get any chance to get out of the way before you blunder into one. Even the foliage is a bit suspect out here. There is a tree called The Stinging Tree, whose leaves are covered in tiny spines which perforate the skin if you brush against them - these spines secrete a poison into the bloodstream which, although not normally deadly, causes intense body-wide pain for up to nine months and for which there is no anti-venom. The rainforest of Northern Queensland is seemingly the most beautiful and endlessly exciting place to visit just as long as you don't touch anything, breath on anything, smell anything or look at anything. Nevertheless, I figure I have to die at some point, and if I'm going to go I quite like the idea of appearing in the papers back home under the headline "Stupid Pommie brushes up against death fig". Yesterday, after sitting by the pool for an hour or so discussing nasty ways we could all meet our demise out here with an Austrian girl called Rebecca, I decided to try the rope walk and see if anything really was going to try to do away with me. Reception provided me with a fair sized leaflet listing the forty points of interest along the way and what to do if something with razor sharp claws jumped out of one of them while I was inspecting it. One of the trees along the route has the unfortunate distinction of being one of only eighteen of its kind left in the World, which I would think would suggest a trip to the garden center for a packet of seeds. After splashing my way through creeks, sinking to my ankles in mud and shoving unyielding branches out of my way right and left, I arrived back at Camp one and a half hours later having literally dragged myself through a hedge and the smile on my face told everyone that I'd enjoyed every minute of it. My one big disappointment is that I haven't seen a Cassowary, the large flightless bird which occupies this area - although this isn't exactly too surprising as they are almost extinct and anyone that encounters one is considered very lucky indeed. In fact, there is a sign at reception which reads: IF YOU SHOULD ENCOUNTER A CASSOWARY WHILE WALKING IN THE FOREST, PLEASE INFORM RECEPTION OF THE TIME AND PLACE IMMEDIATELY FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES I'm told the Cassowary are magnificent birds and that they would rather follow people around than run away from them - which probably explains why there are so few left. The official advice in my guide book for what to do should I encounter one is to take a moment to consider myself very lucky, and then stand totally still because otherwise it might chase and attack me. So nothing new there then. This morning, we were visited by a Cockatoo. She came into camp around breakfast time, wandered unfazed through the crowded dining tent saying 'ello to everyone in a broad Westcountry accent, and then passed most of the rest of the morning playing fetch with a piece of coconut. I came back from stretching my legs in the forest at lunchtime to find her giving a very impressive display of gymnastics using the metal railings at the top of the lounge steps. It looks as though the poor thing has a damaged wing and a broken leg, but she wasn't about to let any of us catch her to check, so we reckon she must come to camp regularly looking for an easy source of food. This afternoon, I took a boat tour along the Daintree River, which seemed to be filled with Germans. The boat, not the river. They all wanted to know every little detail about the birds in every tree, every snake and insect they spotted, and pointed at every slight movement in the water shouting "Croc! Croc!" at the guide. Our guide, for his part, was very patient but after half an hour of constant questions suddenly developed a wicked sense of humour: "If you look to the left hand side of the boat, you can see a Sea Eagle"
"Excuse me, please? What do they eat, these Sea Eagles?"
"German Tourists" There are plenty of Saltwater Crocodiles on the Daintree and we were lucky enough to see a group of them snacking on a cow that had fallen in the water. There are two types of Crocs - Saltwater and Freshwater - and "Salties" are the ones to be worried about, since Freshwater crocodiles are generally far too laid back to attack unless provoked. Here's a little known fact: Contrary to popular belief, Humans are not on the Crocodile food chain. If they do attack a Human, which has only been recorded as happening a handful of times in the last century, they don't eat the body. Instead, they drag it down to the bottom of the lake, stick it under a rock, wait for it to begin to decompose and use it as bait to catch the things they actually want to eat. And on that gruesome thought, I shall say goodnight as our coach leaves early in the morning and I don't much like the idea of oversleeping and being left alone in the rainforest surrounded by a million hungry things...

You can read my complete travel journals at www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer and www.offexploring.com/globalwanderer2

(1) Globally, fifty acres of rainforest are being destroyed every hour - that's just about twenty-six million acres a year. Every single second, an area of forest the size of Wembley Stadium is removed from the face of the Earth. In the time it has taken you to read this paragraph, deforestation has accounted for land the size of twenty Football pitches being laid bare. In every four square miles of rainforest, there are up to 700 species of mammal, bird, amphibian or reptile - and somewhere, one species becomes extinct every thirty minutes. If we continue at the rate we are, the rainforest will be gone in thirty years and up to ninety percent of the world's animals will go with it. This is not a joke.

Daintree rainforest is great! beautiful forest, big chance of seeing nice animals, like snakes, crocs, cassowaries, big lizards.. really nice! Do not be afraid of danger, because most animals are only visible on special tours, but still.. really nice!

prices are a bit up but if you don t like too much booking, we had a great stand by deal in a lodge not far from cap trib...we ve been looking in the afternoon with the option to go back to any places(mossman or even port douglas) and had a half price room in a lovely lodge!!!!(120 instead of230!!)

We were able to stay right in the rainforest. Amazing food and adeventures. Lots of critters, beautiful hikes and gator filled rivers.

The Daintree Rainforest is a tropical rainforest on the coast, north of Cairns in tropical Far North Queensland which was added to the World Heritage List in 1988.
It contains 30% of the frog, marsupial and reptile species in Australia, 65% of Australia's bat and butterfly species plus 20% of all the bird species in this country.
One of the best ways to experience the magnificent Daintree Forest is through a guided tour that is offered through many tour operators from Cairns, Port Douglas or Daintree.

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