Queensland: Daintree forests

The Daintree Rainforest in the oldest continually surviving tropical rainforest on earth. It's been a World Heritage Site since 1988 and is well conserved. Apparently some of the plant species have survived unchanged for 40 million years (and I bet the mosquitoes were just as annoying then too).

The Daintree is a beautiful place to visit. There are a number of walks that have been set up in the park, on boardwalks above the ground, so that walkers don't damage the environment but also (in my view) so that walkers don't step on unpleasant things.

The Daintree Discovery Centre has aerial walkways, about 4 metres above the ground, and audioguides that describe the trees and plants as you walk along the walkways. It also has a 23 metre tall tower, on five storeys. As you walk up the tower, you're able to see the different levels of the rainforest and the plants and animals that live at each level. From the top of the tower, you can see over the rainforest canopy -- well, most of it, as some of the trees are 30 metres tall. You can see the bright iridescent blue butterflies that flutter over the treetops, which are not visible from below.

This is one of my favourite spots. A very large spider had spun a very large web between these two trees and was waiting, poised on its web, to catch some dinner. We waited a while to see whether anything happened, but the blue forest butterflies simply danced around the web ...