See Australia's unique animals and birds in their natural environment on a rainforest wildlife-spotting tour in the Atherton Tablelands. Led by an expert nature guide, your small-group nocturnal tour visits a number of locations including lush tropical rainforest and a volcanic crater lake. See tree kangaroos, lizards and musky rat kangaroo by day, and search for platypus at dusk. Enjoy afternoon tea at Lake Barrine and dinner at a country restaurant, then go spotlighting for possum, bandicoots, owls, bats and tree kangaroos by starlight on this fascinating nocturnal wildlife tour.
Posted By : Curteous
So I asked my wife, what did she want to see when we flew to Australia. Her #1 request was to see a platypus in the wild. My first reaction, was seriously how the heck am I going to pull this off. After doing quite a bit of research, I came across wait-a while tour that claimed 90% success rate seeing a platypus. I was skeptical, but booked it. We just came back from this tour, and I can honestly say, 90% success rate was probably too low. We went to a creek that had multiple platypus, and could tell they were there every night feeding. WE weren't 100 yards away, we were within 25 feet from them. Was so cool! We spent 30-40 minutes just following and watching them. Paul the guide was extremely knowledgable about everything on the tour. After that it was all gravy, and we got lots of it. Saw a rat kangaroo, Tree Kangaroo (Which is extremely hard to see in the wild) and a Pademelon. I loved that the tour allowed us to walk around the rainforest looking for these animals. Went to several different locations spotting different animals. Dinner was included at a local restaurant and was great food. This is a small personal tour. We had 7 people in our total party, and I I believe max is 10 peoplel, If you are debating whether or not to book this tour, I would strongly suggest to book it! We spent 3 weeks all over Australia, and this was the highlight of our trip. You need to book it! My whole family agreed that this was even better than the Great Barrier Reef.
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Posted On : 2024-07-04 11:58:59 
Posted By : adriennebrown89
Paul was a great guide, and we really enjoyed our time on this tour. We got to see platypuses and opossums and spiders and pademelons and a rat kangaroo and flying foxes. There were so many things that we never would have seen without Paul’s watchful eye. This was a really unique experience to have that would have been hard to do on our own. Would definitely recommend.
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Posted On : 2024-07-04 05:03:47 
Posted By : Carolyn T
We were a group of 10 in a minibus and the only Australians with others being from the UK, USA and Singapore. Our guide was informative and definitely knew where to look when it came to platypuses. The drive to the Atherton Tablelands from Cairns was very windy and if you are prone to car sickness i’d take a tablet before you head off. We were lucky to see 3 platypuses up very close and being very active too. Even for an Australian seeing a platypus in the wild is special. We went to a local hotel for a decent dinner ( you could choose from the hotel’s menu) and this was included in the tour price. The nocturnal walk after dinner wasn’t that exciting for an Aussie seeing only possums and bats but for our overseas visitors it was good. If you want to see a platypus in the wild i’d definitely recommend this tour.
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Posted On : 2024-07-02 04:51:13
Posted By : mli8889
It is a great tour if you want to see wild animals behaving naturally in their habitat. Our guide, Paul, is very knowledgeable. Saw a python, two platypuses, several possums, and many birds on our tour. The curtain fig tree at the end is absolutely shocking. Didn't see the tree kangaroo during our day tour (but luckily saw it on our trip to Taronga Zoo in Sydney). Suggestions: take motion sickness pills before the trip, as there will be 233 turns in half an hour; preload the Australian bird package in the Merlin app if you want to identify birds.
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Posted On : 2024-06-30 23:22:42
Posted By : Sarah_W
Great experience, Paul was an excellent guide, very friendly and knowledgeable, and we saw lots of wildlife.
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Posted On : 2024-06-25 22:59:03
Posted By : Jim_C
Very knowledgeable tour guide, knew about the history of the area.
also knew about the flora and fauna of the area.
lots of walking during the tour, some in daylight and in the dark.
walking by the river looking for platypus, saw two spent quite a while on this, then found bats , wallabies.
a great evening meal in a historic hotel with loads of features.
well worth the time with plenty to see.
this was a small party tour in a minibus would recommend this tour to everyone.
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Posted On : 2024-05-28 18:30:35
Posted By : Sean_P
We were picked up in the afternoon and got to stop and look at Wallabys, and we went to look at the Platypus about an hour before sunset (the peak time to view them). We actually got to see 3 or 4 of them, which are extremely hard to spot (many locals haven’t even seen them). We also saw Flying Foxes, a poisonous caterpillar, and we also saw a few Opossums during our night tour in the jungle.
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Posted On : 2024-05-18 20:58:04
Posted By : Rodney_B
Great tour and appears to be timed just right to see nocturnal animals in the wild. Paul was an excellent guide and very knowledgeable. We were fortunate enough to see Platypus swimming and feeding as well as flying foxes and various other local flora and fauna. Visiting the curtain fig at night was quite interesting with Paul pointing out an algae that glows in the dark at the base of the tree. Not something you see on the day tours! Walking along a road winding through the rain forest looking for wild life was fascinating. We were supplied with binoculars for use during the tour as well and shown how to use them properly. Turns out I'd been doing it wrong for years. Who knew!! An added bonus, for me anyway, was being up in the mountains at night and no light pollution when you looked up at the sky you got a spectacular view of the milky way. Overall the tour was one of the best and most informative I've been on. Very impressed. I should also mention that apart from the above the tour bus was comfortable and morning tea and lunch was excellent.
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Posted On : 2024-05-16 18:53:13
Posted By : Zohara S
Great guide and a really good tour for beginning to explore the wildlife of the Cairns area. Would definitely recommend!!
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Posted On : 2024-05-09 21:46:46
Posted By : gillmG6357RN
What a great trip. Paul knew exactly where to go so we came up close to tree kangaroo, rat kangaroo, platypus and so much more. The night time view of the fig tree just took my breath away. His knowledge was bottomless and the pub dinner in a traditional aussie village was outstanding. Thank you Paul for a memorable time.
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Posted On : 2024-04-19 19:22:58
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