About all

"Under no circumstances are you to pick them up and lick their bums," warned Prue Hewett.

We were in Tropical North Queensland at Cape Tribulation, in the Daintree Rainforest, the most primitive rainforest in the world.Earlier on our walk in Cooper Creek Wilderness, Prue had persuaded us to take Green Ants from a flowering tree and told us to suck them.

They tasted of lemon.Not long after, we came across their jungle brothers, the Jumping Jack Ants. These, unlike the succulent Green Ants, can cause you much distress.

Hence Prue’s warning.It’s as well, when you’re in these parts, to have an expert with you so that you don’t wander around tasting the wrong ants. Nor do you, in your ignorance, want to miss out on the rare birds, insects and mammals and primitive plants species, some of which have been around for 100-million years.

This is the only place in the world where two World Heritage-listed places meet, where two ecosystems live side by side: here the velvety green mantle of the Daintree Rainforest slopes plunge to the aqua waters of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, its fringing reefs growing almost to the shore.That’s where we found the Daintree Wilderness Lodge which, incidentally, arranges picks-ups from Cairns and Port Douglas.

The Lodge a living biological museum, its setting a fan palm gallery in lowland rainforest between the Daintree River and Cape Tribulation.It was designed and constructed by Anna Graham and her late husband Mal in 1991. "We fell in love with the forest the first time we saw it," Anna said. The wonder of the Lodge is that the Grahams managed to create such luxury with minimal impact on the rainforest. Their concern for the environment was such that clearings for the construction sites were created by hand with crowbars and shovels.

Earthmoving machinery was not used at all. So fastidious were they, that only two live trees had to be removed.Raised boardwalks – designed to minimise the impact on the rainforest floor – link the diningroom, bar and jungle jacuzzi with the seven luxury-style bungalows which are set amidst the rainforest canopy and fan palms. Each bungalow has a covered verandah where tropical breakfast is served.The Lodge’s self-guided walk leads through the lush rainforest to its own private, natural rock pool where you can swim in the pristine fresh water. This area is also known as the "cassowary nursery".

The Lodge is an ideal base to explore the Daintree Cape Tribulation area. One of the best ways to see it is by 4WD with Rum Runner Safaris which offer many diverse adventure tours into the scenic wilderness.We were picked up at the Lodge and driven to the top of Cape Tribulation up the Bloomfield track to see the Bloomfield falls, crossed the Bloomfield River to aboriginal communities ...... the entire journey filled with the driver’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the wild life, flora and fauna.There are many tours available from the Lodge such as diving or snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, scenic flights, horse-riding, river and deep-sea fishing, canoeing and cruises on the Daintree River where you could see crocodiles, tree snakes and amethystine pythons and some of the 225 recorded bird species in the Daintree Valley. Some of Queensland’s most beautiful beaches are a short distance from the Lodge.But the walking tours provided by people like Prue and Neil Hewett of Cooper Creek Walk are among the best bets. They love Cooper Creek Wilderness and enjoy sharing its secrets.

When you’re with them there’s a good chance of catching a rare glimpse of the elusive cassowary, the musky rat kangaroo, Australia’s most primitive marsupial, a Boyd’s forest dragon (a miniature dinosaur from another age), a tree snake or a python and a variety of birds.Neil leads silent night forays into the rainforest where visitors come face-to-face with a myriad of nocturnal sights and sounds: the unmistakable "falling bomb" call of the Lesser Sooty Owl; the glaring red eye of the Papuan Frogmouth Owl; the massive Wolf spiders, open-range hunters conspicuous by their distinctive reflection of their eight eyes; or the large Brush-footed Trapdoor Spiders, also known as Whistling or Barking Spiders because of the sounds they make.

Cooper Creek Wilderness has a remarkable fan palm gallery with a double canopy that is without parallel. It’s featured in the epic film "The Thin Red Line". Among the startling trees is the bumpy satin ash, a tree with a brownish-orange trunk and bright gold flowers on the trunk. The tree is inhabited by a colony of ants which helps in the pollination of the flowers.

There are some painful flora around and you need Prue and Neil around to identify the stinging tree, the wait-a-while and the native bamboo. There are over 3,000 different plant species in the forest, Prue explained, and she warned us about some of the more unpleasant ones.