This may be an ignorant question but . . . is there a difference between the rain forest that one experiences up near Daintree and Cape Trib, and the rainforest near the Atherton Tableland? A couple of the farmstays in the Atherton Tableland state that they are near or in rainforest -- will it be the same type of experience as in the Daintree area? Thank you.

Hi HBR - there is quite a difference - Daintree rainforest meets all the criteria to have received World Heritage listing and is predominately coastal. There is some remnant and tropical highland rainforest on the Tableland as well; a lot of the rainforest in the area was logged by early settlers, both for the value of the timber it yielded and to provide rich argricultural land.

HBR: As Pat says, a lot of the rainforest on the Tablelands is now gone, cleared for agriculture, sadly. During/after WWII, the Americans leveled a lot of forest practicing clearing jungle for airstrips. What remains is patchy, not the continous expanse you have in the Daintree and Cape Trib. At Cape Trib, the rainforests go down to the ocean, and in so doing merge with mangrove forests. Nonetheless you will see a lot of the kinds of trees in both places. If you go to the Tablelands, don't miss the Cathedral and Curtain Fig trees - very impressive, good thing the settlers didn't hack them down.

Hi, NBR,
We went to both places last year and found the rain forest in the Daintree / Cape Trib area superior to what was seen on the Tableland. Having said that, the Tableland area had some great trees, not including the Cathedral and Curtain Fig trees, that are not of the rainforest variety but well worth looking at.

HBR, We did and enjoyed both, The landscape of the Tableland is somewhat remeniscent of upland Hawai'i on the wet side. The 3 waterfalls we walked out to near Millaa Millaa were impressive. We also toured Lake Barrine, a lovely drowned volcanic crater ona wildlife spooting cruise from the tea house and saw amythest pythons, aka Steve Irwin bracelets.
A/D