Wild life

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After 24 hours in planes, as we landed in Cairns the pilot told us that it was raining. And all day, on and off, we did have tropical rain showers but it was hard to be down hearted. We strolled beside the palm fringed ocean, the temperature hit 30 and we headed into a coffee shop when another short, sharp rain shower hit town.

After a day chilling, to adjust our body clocks, we headed 2 hours north, using a little chain ferry to cross into the Daintree National Park. This is untouched rainforest with a bewildering array of flora and fauna. Australia is so isolated that much of what we see is unique to the country and, therefore, hard to identify. Even the pigeons are spectacularly multicoloured.

Our accommodation in the park was a permanent tent - a wooden base and frame covered in canvas. Set on its own, it looked out onto virgin forest (panorama above). As we sorted out the tent we had our first close wildlife encounter - a melomyn who also saw the tent as home. We shoo'd this large ginger mouse-like animal out and blocked his exit hole. At 2 am he tried to get back in. After much scratching at our blockage, he left. We lay in bed listening to the rainforest - the incessant calling of crickets and other insects; owls hooting; birds' alarm calls; and fruit falling from the canopy onto our canvas roof with a sudden loud plop.

In the morning we took a walking trail from the camp, winding our way between fallen trees, dodging under vines like two would-be David Attenboroughs. High above in the canopy birds squawked and around us there was the constant rustle of dry leaves in the wind. Just us and the rainforest.. And then we saw a snake.

The snake was about 2 metres long and black-ish and just sitting there looking at us. And us at it. After taking a photo - who will believe us without a photo - we carefully skirted around the snake and the snake, in turn, slid away into the undergrowth. Back at camp the snake was identified as a red-bellied black. We thought there was one of those out there, they told us, and yes, it is venomous.

In the following days we explored more forest and many empty white beaches. We saw strange animals from tiny jewelled spiders to large lizards. We walked beneath huge trees over 25 metres high and more than 500 years old.

The surfaced road runs out at Cape Tribulation - it is just dirt tracks from there north. Captain Cook's ship Endeavour hit the reef off this headland, hence the name. Today, it is a cluster of houses, a general store and a long curved beach of white sand (panorama above). We walked the beach and soaked up the atmosphere of this beautiful, remote place. Inland the dense, untouched rainforest lookS much the same as when Cook arrived, indeed much the same as it always has.

We have now turned south ... more soon.

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