Rainforest Adventure treks
Night comes quickly in the rainforest when you are searching for the rare black caiman deep in the Venezualan Rainforest. These reptiles are most active at night and that is when they are at their most dangerous. You may come across a baby caiman on the bank of a pond. They make a shrill rasping sound - a distress call to its mother. This is it - an epic adventure to indulge yourself in the beauty of the rainforest. There is an incredible diversity and abundance of life in the tropical rainforests of far north Queensland, Australia. During the rainy season there is lots of life to see - the little creatures are fascinating and will overwhelm the senses.
The greatest risk in the rainforest is going so far into the rainforest that you get lost and cannot find your way out. You may come across a bright blue crayfish after a heavy rainfall had left the forest floor wet enough for them to hunt on the forest floor. North Queensland is the only place in the world that these crayfish can be found. The rain can bring out leeches as well. If your legs get covered with them just rip them off - they look something terrible but they do not carry any diseases. They were once used in medicine for drawing out blood.
The destruction of the rainforests in south-east asia has been caused by the clearing of one of the earth’s most biologically diverse regions for palm plantations. Borneo has between ten thousand and fifteen thousand species of flowering plants and Indonesia’s rainforests as some of the oldest on the planet. Now only isolated pockets remain - illegal logging is common and corruption in the police is rife. Where there used to be rainforest and jungle there is nothing - everything has been logged. There are grave concerns about plans to build a road from Peru to Brazil through the Amazon rainforest which will go through national parks and animals will be hunted and more logging will take place. Governments care more about the economy than endangered species.
Rainforests are the greatest treasure troves that we have on this planet. It is disastrous that we are losing them just at the time we are beginning to appreciate their true value.