As usual, the best comes at last. It arrives slowly, takes a long time to develop but then overwhelms with its perfection. I got lucky. Again. Subjective but indisputable, I had the privilege to discover the Daintree as a tourist after being a quasi-local for so long. My senses had trained for several months to adjust to the rainforest, my heart had learned to appreciate its details and my mind had gathered knowledge. In a culmination of luck, I decided to remove the one limiting factor that kept me and still keeps the majority of the locals from properly enjoying the jungle. Time. I gave myself time to discover. Time without limits to explore. Because what use is it to go and see the full moon rise, if you have to leave after five minutes? In that time, you can barely appreciate it emerging orange and heavy over the Pacific's horizon, first just a colourful flicker at the edge of your vision, only to grow into this large ball of fire, reflecting a glazing light on the water's still surface. And while the setting sun darkens the sky all around it, it slowly settles onto its final yellow-white shade, calm and relaxing, attracting unavoidably the gaze of all remaining night-sky enthusiasts. And when someone comes back from climbing Mount Sorrow, I don't ask anymore 'How long did it take you?', but instead 'What did you see on the way?'. Did you take time to appreciate the centuries old cycads? Did you have a look around and see a Boyd Forest Dragon? Did you amaze at the sight of the Strangler Figs weaving their roots around ancient red cedars and gumtrees? Did you get to the top and absorb the view of the jungle occupying the mountain side, a rugged green ocean, stopping abruptly at the beaches to turn into the calm, blue Pacific waters spotted with brown coastal reefs, which in turn merge at the horizon with the white of the sky? Without my previous knowledge I would never have been able to notice the several stages Cooper creek goes through. Closest to the ocean it is ideal crocodile territory. This part, wide, deep, murky, full with fish and crabs scurrying around the swampy, Mangrove-loaded, riverbanks, prompts a certain respect and fully-blown admiration in the tourists, huddled together on a small boat, guided by the experienced skipper to observe the ancient reptiles in its natural habitat. Further upstream the water gets shallower and clearer but still prone to occasional low-lying fogs and thus still suspicious to the attentive traveller watching it from the safe distance of a narrow bridge across it. Using local knowledge, the curious adventurer enters the creek even further upstream, where the wide shallow river turns into a narrow creek of crystal-clear waters, a sequence of cascades and rapids interrupted by magnificent turquoise water holes, crossing them requiring some waist-deep in-water wading, braveness and cold-water resistance. Sparkling in the rare light that makes it from the hot midday sun trough the dense jungle canopy, these places make even the most agnostic of us doubt their ways. Pretty soon the advancing explorer will have left their last opportunity behind to go for a swim, as the previous level ground is replaced by waist-and even shoulder-high boulders, funnelling the water between and under them, sometimes displacing it completely underground. Here is best treaded carefully, because as much fun as rock-hopping is, if you don't pay attention even the most skilled, tall, red-headed American will fall. Gaining in altitude the patient hiker, soaked in sweat and fresh mountain water finally arrives at one of the very-well kept secrets of the Daintree. The Alexandra falls. A sequence of several-meters high waterfalls along the steep cliffs of the suddenly appearing mountain range in front of you. Definitely worth the effort. Same as for the hike to the golden-glowing Emmogen-creek water hole, walking from there down along the beach, across long stretches of corals, made accessible by an exceptionally low tide, towards Cape Tribulation. Never was I able to discover so many beautiful spots off the tourist tracks. I'll miss it.