Description of the attraction
Daintree National Park is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site, spreading over an area of 1200 sq. km north of Cairns. This is a unique place, one of the last virgin rain forests on the planet, where you can meet the rarest species of plants and animals, including endangered ones. The heart of the park is the Daintree River, which rises in the mountains of the Great Dividing Range and flows into the Coral Sea. If you find yourself in the park during the rainy season, you will see streams of warm water lashing along the ground through the trees.
The following figures indicate the species richness of the park: a third of all species of frogs, marsupials and reptiles, 65% of species of bats and butterflies and 20% of bird species in the country live here, although the park occupies only 0.2% of Australia's territory.
The park was founded in 1981, and in 1988 the oldest rain forest on the planet (it has existed continuously for over 110 million years!) Was included in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List as the most important proof of evolution and a clear example of ecological and biological processes. Scientists believe that this incredible constancy of the state of this rainforest is the result of Australia's separation from other continents.
But Daintree Park is not only a place to get acquainted with the unique flora and fauna. There are interesting geographical features - Mossman Gorge in the southern part of the park, Cape Tribulation, the famous "Jumping stones" on Thornton Beach. This beach was considered sacred by the local Kuku yalanji tribe of aborigines, women of the tribe performed their mysterious rituals on it. And today it is forbidden to take stones from the beach - they say that this can bring the curse of the ancient spirits.
Here you can go on a walking tour, relax on clean beaches or have a picnic. You can get here from Port Douglas or Cairns.
