Wet dream: Falls in the rainforest.

Fifty million years ago, nearly all of Australia was covered in rainforest, but by the time European explorers arrived in 1788, only about 1 percent of it remained. Logging and farming whittled away at that area until the 1980s, when conservationists fought to save the rainforest. In 1988, the World Heritage Area designation brought a total ban on commercial logging.

Now, more than half of Australia's rainforest lies in Queensland, including the Daintree, one of the most prolific and complex natural communities on earth. It's also one of the oldest—100 million years—with more than 3,000 identifiable plants and countless animals, including 25 very rare species.

Prettier than a peacock, but
cassowaries will attack if provoked.

Knowledgeable guides are readily available for forays into the Daintree, so I set off one morning with a cheery fellow named Gavin, who drove north through the sugarcane village of Mossman and turned inland. We hiked along the Mossman River Gorge, which was filled with raging brown water from storms. On a calmer day we would have swum in quiet pools beneath gigantic boulders, but this day we dodged dripping branches in the gloom beneath the forest canopy—a setting straight out of"Jurassic Park."

We cruised in a flat-bottom boat along the wide Daintree River, watching for crocodiles sunning on sandbanks and pythons curled in the trees as colorful birds rose in clouds at the boat's approach. And though we hiked some rugged trails that follow old Aboriginal tracks, many wide wooden walkways make it possible for anyone to explore areas of the rainforest. In Jindalba, We followed a raised walkway under a dense canopy of 50-foot-tall trees in search of the endangered cassowary, a 160-pound relative of the emu and the wullah that was hunted into near extinction hundreds of years ago.

Hazel Douglas leads rainforest
tours from the aboriginal perspective.

Make no mistake, though: While you'll find luxe resorts here, this is still dangerous rainforest. Frighteningly named creatures like the Death Adder join the Red Bellied Black Snake and the poisonous Cane Toad as deadly inhabitants. The Stinging Palm is also true to its name: Touch this plant and tiny nettles holding up to 80 toxins will detach into your skin.

Move on to Jowalbinna

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Get Away to Australia—Today The Best of the Reef - Dive in and explore the world's longest barrier reef. Queensland in Depth - Up close and personal with nature in northeast Australia.

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