Rainforest Hideaway - Daintree accommodation and sculpture trail in
the ancient rainforest at Cape Tribulation, Australia
ECOTOURISM
Ecotourism.org defines ecotourism as:"responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education"
The well-being of local people includes you spending your money directly with local population instead of outside multi-national companies.
You can do this by BOOKING DIRECT WITH ACCOMMODATION OWNERS instead of going through a worldwide website that demands 12 to 30% commission.
The worldwide push to monopolize accommodation bookings takes income away from hard working hotel owners and drives up the price of your room everywhere.
Even for a small place commissions can reach $1000.- a month and instead of the money going to another super yacht or holiday mansion for the millionaire CEO of a multi national booking site it could be better spent on improving the accommodation further or putting our daughter through school.
Your host Shane
Eco Certification
What does it mean if someone displays the eco-certification logo of Ecotourism Australia on their website or advertising?
It means they have paid their application fee, and they paid their annual fee to Ecotourism Australia, and they have ticked the right boxes on the form.
Early 2014 a monstrosity of a concrete house was completed in Cape Tribulation, the amount of energy and resources gone in to this impractical structure was staggering, but it was widely advertised in the media as green, carbon-neutral and self-sufficient because it catches rainwater off the roof, and because it has some solar panels to reduce the running hours of the big generator. Total nonsense. Hypocritical greenwash.Over the years I have known of eco-certified accommodation who run air-conditioners on a diesel generator all year even through the winter, eco-certified tour operators who lost their licence for speeding in cassowary habitat areas, I have witnessed another eco-certified tour operator blast through the Daintree at at least 100km/hour at night when animals often cross the road, and when you talk to most of these people in private they admit that they think it is all BS but they don't mind paying just to have the eco logo on their site expecting it will boost business.
Displaying their eco certification logo only means they have paid their fees, not that they are genuinely interested in being as green as possible, or are even doing much...At Rainforest Hideaway we don't join in hypocritical games like this, we do our own thing and consider ourself to be green enough to self-certify as eco-friendly.
- A absolute minimum of forest has been cleared to fit Rainforest Hideaway in to the jungle, not like some other places that are now somewhere near the forest, no longer in it.
- Rainforest Hideaway has the smallest generator of all resorts and only run this for a maximum of six hours a day on average to supplement the solar panels which do not always work too well in a rainforest.
- We harvest the plentiful supply of rainwater that falls in Cape Tribulation. We have a gravity feed line from the creek which requires no energy at all, and a float valve on the tank so we don't waste water in overflow.
- We do not chlorinate the drinking water or treat it with any other chemicals or treatments that require electricity, we use a dual cartridge water filter of ceramic and carbon cartridge to deliver pure clean drinking water, gravity fed from the tank.
- Every guest is encouraged to refill their plastic water bottles from our water filter instead of disposing of bottles and then going to the shop to buy new ones. Nothing more stupid than being in a rainforest with plentiful supply of clean drinking water, and then buying water that got trucked up all the way from Brisbane. Did you know that the amount of energy that goes in to producing a plastic bottle of drinking water and getting it to you equates to 30% of this bottle filled with oil?
- We try to grow as much fruit as we can ourselves, on the property we have pineapples, bananas, passionfruit, water cherries, and other fruit trees include mango, jackfruit, lychee, mangosteen, durian, rambutan, and chocolate pudding fruit.
- Our laundry is done in Cape Tribulation, and not in Cairns like many resorts do, as we can't see the point of the sheets having to be driven a 300 km. round trip while there is so much water in Cape Trib to wash them.
- No air-conditioners, hair-dryers, microwaves, and other big power guzzlers.
- All building are designed to let natural airflow do the cooling, and skylights let the daylight in.
- Natural local materials are used where ever possible as building supplies.
- We recycle all recyclables and do a run to the dump only once every two or three months.
- Frogs are an indicator of the state of environment, and they are very happy around Rainforest Hideaway, people have even complained on Tripadvisor about the sound of the numerous frogs at night. Further proof of how well Rainforest Hideaway blends in to the natural environment without disturbance comes from the cassowaries who feel very much at around Rainforest Hideaway, so much they mated on the back door step in 2012!
Recommended by: AmazingAustralia.com.au | Lonely Planet | Trip Advisor
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Rainforest Hideaway Cape Tribulation Accommodation & Sculpture Trail - 109R Camelot Close, Cape Tribulation 4873, Australia Ph: 0460 361346