This tour was just beyond anything I had expected. Paul is enormously knowledgable. You can ask him anything and he will know the answer. Top tip from me (but ask permission first): record all the things he is teaching you - it is jaw-dropping. We saw three platypus, a white-tailed rat (endemic to Oz/ Qld), several possums, bower birds, fluorescent fungi, flying foxes, brolgas, a small dragon (Boyd's dragon; a juvenile), wallabies, alas no tree kangaroo. I have already decided to do the very same tour again when I return to Cairns in 2026. Can't wait! Thanks a lot, Paul! You run a tight ship and you don't suffer fools gladly, but this has been a blast!!!

Forget the Great Barrier Reef. That pales into insignificance when compared to this trip Paul, The tour guide is a font of knowledge and explains the historic significance of the rainforest on the route to your first stop yes there are 233 twists and turns on the road but expertly handled by Paul. Paul was very keen to ensure that we saw as much wildlife as, possible but of course nothing is guaranteed We did see several platypus. the amazing flying foxes both stationary and in flight. Ring tailed possum. wallabies. Pademelons, brush tailed turkeys. The rainforest itself is a unique experience viewing ancient trees. With both daytime and night time strolls this is the best opportunity to see nocturnal animals If you can only afford one trip this is the one for you. Don't miss it

We spent an afternoon and evening with Paul and had a wonderful time. We saw three platypus, wallabies, fruit bats, and pade melon during the day. The pade melon were close by until they take off like rockets through the forest. In the evening we saw three types of possum in the trees. We also had incredible clear skies with stars and one shooting star. Paul is very knowledgeable of the local history and wildlife.

This tour is a must do if you have an interest in an authentic wildlife tour in North Queensland. Paul is a highly engaging and knowledgeable guide with an uncanny ability to spot critters in light and dark. Amongst others we managed to see the more elusive tree kangaroo with the piece de resistance being a 20 plus minute display by a platypus who incredibly climbed onto a rock to scratch and preen itself in full view. We booked this trip after a cancellation of our Daintree forest tour and are now delighted for that good fortune. (David, Amanda and Amy..tour on 2 January 2024)

That was AWESOME! First of all, the main goal of Paul the guide was finding animals. This trip's purpose is not to walk or to hike. Paul is very experienced, I felt secure and had confidence in him to find animals. All you need to do is listen to him. He knows everything there is to know about the wildlife animals, the vegetation and flora, the towns and man made (or destroyed) areas and even the stars above us. Do not expect to take good photos with your phone. Instead, I recommend you keep your eyes on nature (binoculars are provided). This easily tops any trip I've been on. What we saw: wallabies, rat kangaroo, tree kangaroo, pademelon, flying foxes, giant white tail rat, red possum (can't remember the name), green ringtail possum (very rare), several platypuses, water dragon, turtles, micro bats, fireflies, and a spider that I prefer to forget 🤭 The drive up the mountain is windy, about 300 turns in 30 minutes, some people may prefer to take a pill (take it right before the drive starts). There's a stop in the middle for a lookout.

Great trip, our guide was very knowledgable, highly enthusiastic and most importantly clearly cared a lot about the rainforest.

Did this trip last night. Spotted a platypus and tree kangaroo and much more. Pub dinner was excellent. Paul was very knowledgeable about the area, the wildlife and vegetation. Bring your walking shoes. Highly recommended.

Just did a fantastic nature tour with Paul from Waitawhile. He pointed out so much wildlife that we would never have seen on our own. It was truly special. Don’t miss this opportunity to enjoy the riches of this rainforest with a very informative guide.

I booked on this tour not quite sure what to expect. I was delighted. The guide, Trapio, I hope I have splet his name correctly if not I apologise was brilliant. As a professional scientist he had all the facts at his finger tips and was not shy to explain things to us clearly. He even managed to conjure two wild platypus for us to see which was great. The night walk was excellent and we saw quite a few of the animals not normally seen. Lastly the dinner was good and the meal a delight. I cannot recommend this tour too highly to anyone who wants a really Aussie expeeience.

My family thoroughly enjoyed this tour experience. Seeing so many animals in their natural, uniquely Australian habitat was very interesting. The highlight for us were the two massive “trees”. They’re actually vines known to be 600 years old, and were the inspiration for the movie Avatar. The other highlight was the platypus. We are very lucky to be able to say we saw a wild one! Your effort in finding him was very much appreciated!!! Thank you Paul for imparting all your knowledge about the flora and fauna. We enjoyed spending our last night in the tropical north with you.

Since the moment I decided to visit Australia, seeing the biodiversity of this unique place has been on my priority list. And this tour helped me with just that. We saw the platypus 3 times! The platypus is an elusive animal but our guide knew exactly where to look and after a while of patiently waiting and searching, we saw it! That was the highlight of the tour for me. Other than platypus, we also saw a wide variety of animals - tree kangaroos, several possums, a gecko, flying foxes, an adorably curious bandicoot and more. Our guide was so knowledgeable! He answered every single question he was asked, showed us some unique plants, demonstrated to us how wasps leave larvae on leaves by opening one, held a toad on torchlight to show it's organs and heartbeat, showed us an exoskeleton to explain the inner body of an organism. The lunch was also good. I will definitely recommend this tour to anyone who visits Cairns. Totally worth it!

I guess not, I tried. Where do I begin? First, with owner operator Paul. What a friendly and knowledgeable guide and owner. You can tell people love what they do when they do their job like Paul. He made sure that when their wasn’t animals to see, there was info to learn, and we learned a lot. I did several outdoors tours like this one, and in each one, learned something new, that was the same here. I learned things from Paul I didn’t learn from the other four tours I had taken with my daughter. On to the stars of the show, the animals. We saw a dragon, not too big of a deal, saw a couple actually. We saw a platypus and those are hard to get a picture of. Best thing to do is take video and get a screen shot. We didn’t see one tree kangaroo, we saw four. We also saw some little spiny thing with spikes, it was a mammal and an egg layer. That was a rare find. I forgot how to spell it. We saw flying foxes, rats, rat kangaroos and flying foxes. I had two main wildlife goals for this trip. To swim with a sea turtle and I did that with ocean safari and to catch a python in the wild. I didn’t think it was gonna happen, if it was gonna happen it would have happened on this trip. I had given up. On the way home Paul came to a quick stop on the road. He said, snake. I was out of the van as fast as he was and sure enough, a six foot amethyst python was partially on the road I’m a dangerous spot. Paul picked it up and handed it to me. I held him for a couple minutes so others could let him and get a pic. He wrapped around my arm and urinated on me, even better! And then Paul let me take him off the side of the road to release him to safety. The night couldn’t have gone better or ended better. A dream come true with wait a while tours.

Paul was a great guide and I loved seeing all the animals of the area! While we didn't see everything we set out to find, we saw a lot - flying foxes, platypus (!!!), dragons (?), bandicoots, pademelons, red-back spider (from a safe distance!), wallabies, and lots of birds. Definitely a fun tour from Cairns!

This is a tour worth doing if you are interested in seeing flora and fauna in the rainforest habitat by day and by night. It is a small group of ten people who were picked from various points in an 11-seater van. Our driver-guide was a biologist at the University and so was very knowledgable and had facts and figures at his fingertips. He was passionate about preserving the rainforest and was repeatedly emphasising the damage caused to the environment by deforestation and logging within the rainforest which has now been allowed by the Australian government due to lobbying by logging companies. (Surely this would not have happened in the UK thanks to tree huggers and their ilk). He decried the laying waste of the environment and resultant species extinctions. The trip gave one an insight into the plants, trees and creatures of the rainforest. We began the tour by a visit to the impressive 500 year old cathedral fig tree in the Atherton tablelands Then setting out from the edge of Lake Barrine (which is created within a volcanic crater) we trudged through the forest while we saw the holes in the side walls of the forest earth created as burrows by the tarantula and cane toad. The wait-a-while vine after which the tour was named hung deceptively, innocently from the forest canopy. Actually it is the rattan vine and the tentacles in its stem will cause you to wait-a-while before you can escape! The termite mound on the tree was amazing. The kingfisher makes a hole in the mound and creates a ready made nest. Living in harmony with the termites, the bird returns to the nest the following years. Boyd’s forest dragon was impressive. The tiny skink lizard did come out of the tree hollow to pose. We saw the fallen leaves piled up by the brush turkey. It uses this pile to lay its clutch of eggs and the heat generated in the process of composting allows the eggs to hatch. And on coming out from the forest we’re rewarded by one of these birds strutting on the road. We could hear bird calls but they were high in the canopy and not always visible. We saw the strychnine plant and learnt that chewing a couple of leaves can be fatal. Another fact was that the same end result would occur if one chewed the leaves of the eucalyptus tree whose essential ooils we are familiar with. After dinner in a restaurant in Yungaburra we set out for platypus hunting in Peterson Creek. We were rewarded by a large male seen swimming and ducking in the creek. Before that we were treated to the cicadas in intense mating call for some ten minutes followed by silence as the forest went quiet for the night. and briefly saw the small insect eating bats skimming the water. Then we drove to the edge of the forest to find several possums atop the branches (one had its baby riding piggyback), flying foxes, a tree mouse and a whole family of pademelons (mini kangaroos) by spotlight. Overall a very successful day and night tour. You are of course limited by what you see in any given day/night. But we think we struck lucky.

I did This trip alone but didn’t feel alone , I was picked up from my hotel and the guide , who was German was so lovely he made me feel welcome straight away . The tour was really great and we went to a few different places to see the best wildlife , from the beautiful trees to a platypus to kangaroos to tiny bats , everything was fab and I would recommend, dinner was included and was nice too xx