Ultimate Wildlife Safari North Queensland: Tablelands to Daintree

Pickup from your Cairns hotel is followed by the drive up onto the Atherton Tablelands via the Gillies Highway, climbing past Lake Eacham (Yidyam) and Yungaburra. First stop is the Curtain Fig Tree, a strangler fig whose aerial roots run several metres down to the ground after the host tree it grew around fell against its neighbour. From there the road continues to Mount Hypipamee National Park, where a volcanic pipe almost 70 m across drops to a lake 58 m below the rim and more than 70 m deep. Lunch is in Malanda, then the afternoon is spent at Hasties Swamp, a seasonal wetland where more than 220 bird species have been recorded. A two-storey hide looks out over the water, with magpie goose, black swan, darter, brolga, sarus crane and black-necked stork among the regulars, and forest kingfisher and red-backed fairy-wren in the surrounding scrub.

Overnight: Chambers Wildlife Lodge, Lake Eacham (Yidyam). Meals: L/D.

Two walks this morning in Malanda Falls Conservation Park (Tutamonlin) target Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroo, a solitary, slow-moving animal that spends almost all its time in the rainforest canopy and is more often heard than seen. Green ringtail possum, Boyd’s forest dragon, eastern whipbird and red-legged pademelon are also on the list. After lunch in Malanda, the afternoon is given to the Tolga Bat Hospital, where a bat detector picks up the echolocation calls of microbats and volunteers explain the rescue, rehabilitation and research work the hospital does for flying-fox and microbat populations across the Tablelands.

Overnight: Chambers Wildlife Lodge.
Meals: B/L/D.

Yungaburra’s clear mountain streams are the morning’s focus, with no time pressure to get a clean look at a platypus surfacing to breathe. The afternoon moves to Crater Lakes National Park, where Lake Eacham (Yidyam) and Lake Barrine (Barany) sit in craters blown out roughly 10,000 years ago when rising lava met groundwater, both reaching a depth of around 65 m. Red-legged pademelon, musky rat-kangaroo, saw-shell turtle and eastern water dragon are regularly seen around the lake edges. An optional night spotlighting session after dinner looks for leaf-tailed gecko, lemuroid possum, green ringtail and Herbert River ringtail possums, lesser sooty owl and a long list of frogs.
Overnight: Chambers Wildlife Lodge.
Meals: B/L/D.

Leaving the Tablelands, the morning’s drive passes through Mareeba to Granite Gorge, where the Mareeba rock-wallaby — only recognised as a species distinct from its relatives in 1992 — moves among the granite boulders alongside red-backed fairywren, rainbow bee-eater and dollarbird on the surrounding grasslands. The road then drops through Julatten toward the coast for the afternoon’s private wildlife cruise on the Daintree River, run on a quiet, zero-impact solar-electric boat with a 99% success rate for saltwater crocodile sightings. Great-billed heron, little kingfisher, azure kingfisher, black bittern and white-bellied sea-eagle are the other regulars, with spectacled flying-fox and green tree snake along the banks.

Overnight: Heritage Lodge, Cape Tribulation (Kulki).
Meals: B/L/D.

The last day is spent in the Daintree (Kaba Kada), Kuku Yalanji Country, walking quiet trails through the largest remaining block of tropical rainforest in Australia. Private property access gives the best chance of the day’s main target, the southern cassowary, with Boyd’s forest dragon, Papuan frogmouth, Bennett’s tree-kangaroo, striped possum and Ulysses butterfly also possible. A swim in a freshwater creek covers the hottest part of the day before the drive back to Cairns through Mossman and Port Douglas.

Return to Cairns: approximately 4:30pm.
Meals: B/L.