{"id":39491,"date":"2020-02-21T15:16:07","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T04:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/?p=39491&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=39491"},"modified":"2024-09-24T07:14:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T21:14:48","slug":"eco-tourism-daintree-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"The heart of the Daintree: eco-tourism in the world&#8217;s oldest rainforest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u201cI\u2019ve been studying the <a data-wpil=\"url\" href=\"\/australia\/best-cairns-great-barrier-reef-daintree-152189\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Daintree Rainforest<\/a> for decades by living in it \u2013 it\u2019s a fascinating place to be, inexhaustibly complex. I will never understand it all, which is a nice dilemma to have.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Neil Hewitt is a unique man. Originally from Victoria in southern <a data-wpil=\"url\" href=\"\/australia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Australia<\/a>, he and his family have lived in the Daintree for roughly thirty years on the World Heritage-listed property that he owns, Cooper Creek Wilderness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the only World Heritage property in Australia that isn\u2019t government-funded and is privately owned,\u201d says Neil as he leads us over a fallen fern and deeper into the forest.<\/p>\n<p>We are on <a data-wpil=\"url\" href=\"\/australia\/best-cairns-great-barrier-reef-daintree-152189\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Intrepid\u2019s 5-day Daintree Retreat<\/a>\u00a0and will be spending the morning exploring the heart of the rainforest on foot with Neil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe started running guided walks on the property to cover the costs associated with being World Heritage that are normally covered by the government,\u201d says Neil, \u201cso travellers that visit our property are paying the full cost of their experience and practicing a genuine form of eco-tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39496\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8257-e1582256948399.jpg\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\" ><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39496\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39496\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8257-e1582256948399.jpg\" alt=\"Traveller in the Daintree with guide. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8257-e1582256948399.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8257-e1582256948399-425x239.jpg 425w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8257-e1582256948399-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8257-e1582256948399-585x329.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-39496\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neil is in his element teaching travellers about the environment in the Daintree.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Tourism in the Daintree has a complicated history. In 1988, the Queensland government ceased logging the rainforest and directed the local timber industry to adjust their values and consider tourism as a viable source of income.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a data-wpil=\"url\" href=\"\/australia\/best-cairns-great-barrier-reef-daintree-152189\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>VISIT THE DAINTREE ON INTREPID TRAVEL&#8217;S 5-DAY DAINTREE RETREAT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The newly formed industry took off with such rapid success that the government quickly realised they needed to redirect some travellers to other parts of Queensland. They did this by stretching the brand of the Daintree and re-gazetting a whole lot of other national parks in 1995 to be part of what they now call \u2018Daintree National Park\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>According to Neil, this re-gazetting has made the notion of where the <em>true<\/em> Daintree starts and ends quite difficult to pinpoint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of the places now included in Daintree National Park are much more robust than these ancient rainforests, which need to be protected. A key thing that distinguishes Cooper Creek from any of the other Daintree tourism experiences on offer is that this site is in the middle of the last fragment of the oldest surviving rainforest in the world, the true Daintree, which is 180 million years old.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/adventures\/visit-far-north-queensland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>READ MORE: 5 PLACES YOU DON&#8217;T WANT TO MISS IN FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Neil started his career as an outdoor educator. He was sent to work in a First Nations community in Northern Queensland straight out of university, an experience he describes as \u2018incredibly fortuitous\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAboriginal clientele are perfect for an outdoor education methodology \u2013 their competencies and their knowledge makes them just outstanding recipients of that alternate methodology,\u201d explains Neil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is why classrooms and curriculum that reinforce the need to relinquish Aboriginality really don\u2019t work in my opinion, particularly in remote communities. I found along the way that it was really quite perverse that I was being paid for my expertise teaching Indigenous people about the outdoor environment, which they know a lot more about than I ever could. Really, I was being paid to be exposed to their tremendous body of knowledge and it captured my interest and took me to the most remote parts of the country, which are less likely to be damaged through the dalliances of time.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39501\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8277-e1582257268951.jpg\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\" ><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39501\" class=\"wp-image-39501 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8277-e1582257268951.jpg\" alt=\"Guide leaning against a tree and talking\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8277-e1582257268951.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8277-e1582257268951-425x239.jpg 425w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8277-e1582257268951-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8277-e1582257268951-585x329.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-39501\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neil began his career as an outdoor educator. He has now lived in the Daintree for 30 years.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Kuku Yalanji people are the Traditional Owners of the Daintree. They inhabited it for close to 70,000 years before their forcible removal. While some Kuku Yalanji have now returned to the area, their involvement in land conservation often takes place through their involvement in government organisations, which Neil believes is problematic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not empowering the Kuku Yalanji people to look after the landscape, because there\u2019s a lack of trust, even though they\u2019re the ones that should be trusted most. They have 70,000 years of success in their favour and now they\u2019re being asked to salvage 70,000 years of lost memory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the Aboriginal people were removed and taken to reserves, they had been bound to their corresponding sections of landscape for 200 years short of 70,000 years and that is a tremendously long period to become familiar with an optimised land management.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOutlawing language and ceremony was within the power of the superintendents of those reserves, and this is how much of the knowledge was lost. Humans are tremendously important for eco-systems, but they have to be part of the eco-system for generations to acquire the knowledge to do exactly what the landscape wants them to do,\u201d says Neil.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/adventures\/travel-in-australia-around-the-world\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>READ MORE: TRAVELLING IN AUSTRALIA IS LIKE AN AROUND-THE-WORLD ADVENTURE. THIS IS WHY.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As we explore Cooper Creek today, Neil points out a few of the impacts that the removal of the Kuku Yalanji people has had on the environment. He pauses mid-sentence and holds out a hand, stopping us in our tracks. We stay still and silent while I inwardly pray that he hasn\u2019t spotted one of the eight-metre long pythons that he mentioned in passing earlier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook over there, a cassowary,\u201d Neil whispers, pointing, as we try to silently scramble for cameras and avoid startling the giant bird as it struts through the scrub. Its electric blue head and bright red wattle make it easy to spot, despite the dappled light and green backdrop.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39497\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8227-e1582257018221.jpg\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\" ><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39497\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39497\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8227-e1582257018221.jpg\" alt=\"A cassowary in the wild\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8227-e1582257018221.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8227-e1582257018221-425x239.jpg 425w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8227-e1582257018221-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8227-e1582257018221-585x329.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-39497\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The elusive cassowary!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As the crunching footsteps die away, Neil explains to us that the dwindling population of the native cassowary birds, who have been around for over 50 million years, are a prime example of the current mismanagement of the environment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCassowaries are important to this eco-system because they eat the fruit of certain native trees and then, through their droppings, transport the seeds of that fruit to other areas of the forest where they grow. Many of those fruits are toxic to every other bird and animal, so the cassowaries are the only transporters. For that reason, they are the most valuable and irreplaceable of the inhabitants in the forest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a terrible problem with introduced wild pigs in Australia and they take up so much resource that they have decimated the Daintree for cassowaries. There should be at least 5,000 cassowaries in this environment and no pigs, and but instead there are 1,000 cassowaries and 60,000 pigs,\u201d says Neil, shaking his head.<\/p>\n<p>As well as the changes caused by the removal of the Kuku Yalanji people, there are other factors impacting the overall health of the Daintree: namely, global warming.<\/p>\n<p>Until last year, there had been no monsoonal rains in the area for eight years, which is highly unusual for the tropical climate. Then, suddenly, they received 145 millimetres (almost 6 inches) overnight, which caused two landslides on the nearby mountain, Thornton Peak.<\/p>\n<p>Neil says that from his perspective, there is far more media attention on conserving the Great Barrier Reef than there is about protecting the Daintree \u2013 and this needs to change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven though the reef is a global treasure and a World Heritage area in its own right, there\u2019s nothing on the reef that isn\u2019t well secured in other parts of the world. The Daintree is the most irreplaceable portion of the world in terms of flora and fauna that is found nowhere else. It\u2019s collapsing before our eyes, and it\u2019s frustrating nothing is being done and there\u2019s no commentary towards it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As we continue our tour, Neil draws our attention to some beautifully shaped foliage above our heads.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a mature Fan Palm, with a strangler,\u201d he announces to the group, as he gestures to a thick vine woven around the palm.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39498\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8332-e1582257102306.jpg\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39498\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39498\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8332-e1582257102306.jpg\" alt=\"Fan palms\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8332-e1582257102306.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8332-e1582257102306-425x239.jpg 425w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8332-e1582257102306-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8332-e1582257102306-585x329.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-39498\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ancient Fan Palms.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cFan Palms are the most valuable and irreplaceable of the three to four thousand species of plants in the Daintree, because they are the only one that forms a partnership with a strangler that is not injurious to the palm, but beneficial in tying the Fan Palm to the rest of the forest canopy. The function of the strangler vines is to lock the forest into structural integrity, which is hugely important in protecting against cyclones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/adventures\/australia-packing-list\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>READ MORE: TRAVELLING TO AUSTRALIA? HERE&#8217;S YOUR ULTIMATE PACKING GUIDE.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It isn\u2019t just the plants in the forest that are part of the protection strategy. Strangler vines produce up to 50 million pieces of fruit per tree over their lifetime, much of which is irresistible to flying animals. The animals eat the fruit and drop the seeds, which land on and stick to the upper canopy of the forest. Those seeds then sprout into vines and grow from the top of the forest down, all helping to hold the forest canopy together.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_39506\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8163-e1582258420740.jpg\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39506\" class=\"size-full wp-image-39506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8163-e1582258420740.jpg\" alt=\"Traveller and guide looking at the trees,\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8163-e1582258420740.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8163-e1582258420740-425x239.jpg 425w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8163-e1582258420740-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8163-e1582258420740-585x329.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-39506\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Fan Palms are a sight to behold.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThese magnificent Fan Palms grow so slowly. It takes them 100 years to grow one metre,\u201d explains Neil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can see the design contributes rather magnificently to catching filtered sunlight, rain or the seeds of stranglers \u2013 so everything ends up tied to everything else. And this interconnectivity helps shoulder the impacts of cyclones across the assemblage, so the trees remain upstanding and the dislodged leaf material is then converted by the sun. This helps the massive reproductive process in the forest of flowering and fruiting, and the rainforest inhabitants are replenished with every cyclone that occurs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the vines\u2019 stranglehold on the rainforest may sound alarming, it\u2019s entirely beneficial, and the real struggle lies in the fight we\u2019re losing against pests, like wild pigs, and climate change. There are tens of thousands of years of land management knowledge that has been lost as a result of the displacement of First Nations people, but with people like Neil sharing information, promoting conservation and working tirelessly to make amends for generations of wrongdoing, there\u2019s still hope for World Heritage sites like the irreplaceable Daintree.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>You can take a locally guided tour with Neil, on Intrepid Travel&#8217;s 5-day Daintree Retreat. <a data-wpil=\"url\" href=\"\/australia\/best-cairns-great-barrier-reef-daintree-152189\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Book your place today<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>All images c\/o Patrick O&#8217;Neill.<\/p>\n<p><em>As an Australian-owned business, we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to their Elders past, present and future.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today we explored the world&#8217;s oldest rainforest, with a local who lives in the heart of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15978,"featured_media":39500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[286],"tags":[26,161,263],"class_list":["post-39491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-australia","tag-queensland","tag-responsible-travel-2","ipf_theme-retreats","ipf_region-australia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.3.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Travelling To The Daintree | Intrepid Travel Blog - The Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today we took a guided tour of the Daintree with Neil Hewitt. He and his family have lived in the Daintree for thirty years on the World Heritage-listed property that he owns.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Travelling To The Daintree | Intrepid Travel Blog - The Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Explore the world&#039;s oldest rainforest, with a local who lives in the heart of it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Good Times by Intrepid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intrepidtravel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-21T04:16:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-23T21:14:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8307-e1582257207387.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amy Foyster\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Intrepid_Travel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Intrepid_Travel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amy Foyster\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/\",\"name\":\"Travelling To The Daintree | Intrepid Travel Blog - The Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8307-e1582257207387.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-21T04:16:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-23T21:14:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/7423a48f030666c2d1f9638b08951be4\"},\"description\":\"Today we took a guided tour of the Daintree with Neil Hewitt. He and his family have lived in the Daintree for thirty years on the World Heritage-listed property that he owns.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8307-e1582257207387.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8307-e1582257207387.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":450,\"caption\":\"Daintree fan palms\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The heart of the Daintree: eco-tourism in the world&#8217;s oldest rainforest\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/\",\"name\":\"The Good Times by Intrepid\",\"description\":\"adventure news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/7423a48f030666c2d1f9638b08951be4\",\"name\":\"Amy Foyster\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a32a447df9dbc889fbf248d994b254c30e3b92decfd28eccbd57a4323a95cfce?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a32a447df9dbc889fbf248d994b254c30e3b92decfd28eccbd57a4323a95cfce?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Amy Foyster\"},\"description\":\"My main goal in life is to find ways that I can eat, travel and then write about it and pass it off as gainful employment. In fact, I normally plan my holidays entirely around where and what I am going to eat. Writing this has made me hungry\u2026\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/author\/amy-foyster\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Travelling To The Daintree | Intrepid Travel Blog - The Journal","description":"Today we took a guided tour of the Daintree with Neil Hewitt. He and his family have lived in the Daintree for thirty years on the World Heritage-listed property that he owns.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Travelling To The Daintree | Intrepid Travel Blog - The Journal","og_description":"Explore the world's oldest rainforest, with a local who lives in the heart of it.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/","og_site_name":"The Good Times by Intrepid","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intrepidtravel\/","article_published_time":"2020-02-21T04:16:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-23T21:14:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":450,"url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8307-e1582257207387.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amy Foyster","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Intrepid_Travel","twitter_site":"@Intrepid_Travel","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amy Foyster","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/","name":"Travelling To The Daintree | Intrepid Travel Blog - The Journal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8307-e1582257207387.jpg","datePublished":"2020-02-21T04:16:07+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-23T21:14:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/7423a48f030666c2d1f9638b08951be4"},"description":"Today we took a guided tour of the Daintree with Neil Hewitt. He and his family have lived in the Daintree for thirty years on the World Heritage-listed property that he owns.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8307-e1582257207387.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8307-e1582257207387.jpg","width":800,"height":450,"caption":"Daintree fan palms"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/eco-tourism-daintree-australia\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The heart of the Daintree: eco-tourism in the world&#8217;s oldest rainforest"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/","name":"The Good Times by Intrepid","description":"adventure news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/7423a48f030666c2d1f9638b08951be4","name":"Amy Foyster","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a32a447df9dbc889fbf248d994b254c30e3b92decfd28eccbd57a4323a95cfce?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a32a447df9dbc889fbf248d994b254c30e3b92decfd28eccbd57a4323a95cfce?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Amy Foyster"},"description":"My main goal in life is to find ways that I can eat, travel and then write about it and pass it off as gainful employment. In fact, I normally plan my holidays entirely around where and what I am going to eat. Writing this has made me hungry\u2026","url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/author\/amy-foyster\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Australia_queensland_daintree_xxx_-8307-e1582257207387.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4OQMK-agX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15978"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39491"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77497,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39491\/revisions\/77497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intrepidtravel.com\/adventures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}