Greens of the Daintree

Vast trunks reach up towards the canopy a long way overhead, they’re thick with vines or external roots winding all around them, but everything else seems to be in shades of green. Springy, velvety moss, palm fronds like opaque glass setting the light though to the moist forest floor and leaves everywhere – all green. Even the water running past looks green – but that’s just the reflection from the lush growth that makes this rainforest sweat the scent of growth.

That’s what I remember most about the Daintree. Coming in off the beach – for this is the where the rainforest meets the reef after all, you pass though a narrow band of mangrove and then you’re plunged into shady green that blurs in your eyes after the brightness of the sand and the sea.

You could easily get lost up here in the rainforest. The calls of more than 400 different species of bird and bat can be disconcerting and the leaf covered floor sometimes moves with the lizards, snakes and frogs underneath – this the most biologically diverse areas in Australia and the world’s oldest rainforest at over 135 million years old so there are all sorts of wonderful creatures hiding out in the dense growth of this moist rocky area running from the water catchment hills to the ocean.

Go walking, but stick to the paths and look after this great old beauty, she’s like nothing else on earth if only for all those wonderful shades of verdant green. The Daintree and the reef made me want to paint huge brightly coloured pictures in thick acrylics.