Imagine a thick, impenetrable blanket of greenery rolling down the mountains towards a narrow stretch of pristine white sand. Beyond, a vast expanse of sparkling ocean stretches as far as the eye can see.

Long wisps of hazy mist are caught in the treetops, and still, the temperature and humidity continue to rise under the glaring sun. The campsite, hidden beneath the lush canopy, backs right onto the beach, a sandy paradise fringed by a wall of green on one and the dark blue water on the other side.

That is what I pictured as we drove towards Daintree National Park – I was in awe, full of admiration for this spectacular scenery long before our campervan was swallowed by a dense rainforest the likes we’d never seen before.

After we had spent so many months in Australia’s arid, empty outback, I yearned for greenery. The vast red landscape of Australia’s Red Centre, almost devoid of vegetation, desert-like and sparsely populated couldn’t be more different to the tropical vegetation of Daintree.

Already the drive on the Captain Cook Highway that traces a breath-taking coastline and ferry ride across the Daintree River heralded something amazing and unique. Namely, an emerald green tropical forest, 180 million years old, where once dinosaurs roamed and nowadays, bright blue Ulysses butterflies, giant dragonflies, and a plethora of screeching, colourful birds add colour like Christmas baubles to ancient ferns and vines.

The world’s oldest tropical rainforest is not the Amazon but the Daintree. This untamed wilderness contains the living relics of the Gondwanan forest from 50 to 100 million years ago and was world-heritage listed in 1988 as part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

I loved every minute we spent there and was deeply impressed by this habitat that was utterly foreign to me, as were its inhabitants. The giant lace monitor snaking up a tree, for instance, and the huntsman spider, the size of my palm, that almost crawled across my feet at the Noah campsite.

Located between Port Douglas and Cooktown, Daintree National Park stretches from the rugged Mossman Gorge at the foot of the Mount Carbine Tableland along the Queensland coast to Cape Tribulation, where Captain James Cook’s Endeavour struck the reef in 1770. The two parts of the park, the gorge and the cape, are separated by the Daintree River.

To the east of Cape Tribulation, the rainforest borders on the Great Barrier Reef. It’s the only place in the world that I’m aware of where two such spectacular heritage sites lie immediately next to each other.

Our visit also coincided with an important event for the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people, the traditional owners of this country, who officially received back ownership of Daintree National Park and other areas in the Wet Tropics of Queensland in September 2021. It will be exciting to see how the national park evolves under their management.