All reviewers of the Wet Tropics of Queensland so far have covered Barron Gorge National Park, which is an easy train ride from Cairns. The other 40 or so parks and reserves stay unreviewed. Among those, one immediately catches the eye: Daintree National Park. Here, fringing reefs have developed alongside the coastal rainforest, a feature best seen off Cape Tribulation. The reefs are part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Site, so the two are contiguous here – you can stand with one dry foot in one WHS and with the other wet foot in the other WHS.

I visited the park on a long day tour from Cairns. If you have a car, you can do it yourself as well, but it needs ample time. The drive up there (Cape Tribulation lies about 140km north of Cairns) follows the coast via the Captain Cook Highway. It’s a fine drive on a narrow, winding road, with some roadworks here and there (the whole area is susceptible to flooding). Fairly quickly, you will see the Daintree mountain range on the horizon.

We were offloaded from the bus when we reached the Daintree River. This river marks the boundary of Daintree National Park and also between the zones where there is farming and where there is jungle (and people have to live off-grid). Cars have to take the ferry across – our driver told us that the local council likes it this way, it brings them a steady income and also keeps the number of visitors manageable.

From here, we were taking a boat ride on the river for about 12km. The tide was exceptionally high, which wasn’t good for seeing anything on the river banks. There should be lots of crocodiles and long snakes also. Still, it was a pretty ride among the mangroves and the definitely jungly coastline. We managed to find one female crocodile, of which we had good views. This whole region is crocodile-infested, including rivers, ponds and the sea coast, and there are human victims every year.

On the other side of the river, the roads got steeper and narrower. We had a stop at the Alexandra lookout, from where there are wide views of the Daintree coast. This area north of the river also isn’t all forest: it’s a patchwork of private properties and a national park. Especially the southernmost part sees a fair amount of cultivation: tea plantations and tropical fruit gardens mostly (they sell great ice cream made out of the latter). We had lunch at the Heritage Lodge (together with 8 or so other groups, somehow they all go to the same places). The lodge has a nice, wild trail where you can spot the common plants and trees of the area.

More north we went, first to the Madja Boardwalk. This lies deeper in the national park area, with a dark forest and mangrove part. The loop took about 45 minutes to walk. It showcases the plants and trees that are specific to the Wet Tropics and have a long history, such as Hope’s cycads and Fan palms. The plants do their utmost here to reach the canopy and get some sunshine. And our driver/guide found us a couple of cute Peppermint stick insects at the end.

Our final stop was at Cape Tribulation. This is also where the paved road ends. It has a sweeping beach and the characteristic rainforest-that-reaches-the the sea. The scenery is similar to what I saw at the South-East Atlantic Forests of Brazil.

It was a good tour, seeing how life goes on this far north of Cairns. But I still have a bit of a problem with this and the other Australian forest WHS: it's plants and insects that run the show, while I prefer my forests loaded with primates and other larger mammals. This ecological niche in the Wet Tropics of Queensland is covered by the tree kangaroos, but you won't encounter those on a non-specialized trip.

In addition to the 3 major Emirates, the UAE comprises 4 other Emirates with a less strong international profile. Ajman, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain lie at the northern part of the peninsula, just below Oman's Musandam Governorate. They did not get priority on the road to WH nominations. Abu Dhabi had to be first, of course, Dubai had to be second, but failed with Khor Dubai, and Sharjah succeeded with the Faya Palaeolandscape this year. But all other Emirates, except for tiny Ajman, now have sites on the UAE Tentative List. Together with fellow community members Philipp and Jay, I visited nine of them on a two-day road trip in and out of Sharjah City.

The original design of my itinerary, as posted here on the Forum, did not work out in reality. After calculating the driving times, the full loop would be too much to do in one day, so we spread it out across two days while also incorporating the Faya Paleolandscape WHS. Also, to do it Emirate by Emirate made no sense, as their boundaries are all over the place. Below is a day-by-day, chronological account.

Day 1: Center and East

We started from our Sharjah City hotel, seeing the control towers at the aviation museum (Sharjah the Gate to the Trucial States) in the distance (it is closed for renovation). Our first Tentative Site was Mleiha, right across the street from the Faya WHS. It is part of the same archaeological park as the WHS, but it covers much later ruins, those from Pre-Islamic times. By yourself, you can only peek into what once was the fort. The rest of the site is only accessible on a guided tour, and is part of the archaeological tour they give you at Faya WHS (more about that to follow in a separate review).

From there, we drove further east, into the mountains. Along the way, you'll pass the emirate of Ajman (with their ambition to turn the city of Masfoot into a tourist magnet in 2030). The TWHS we aimed for here is Hatta (Emirate of Dubai). According to news reports, this is a site that is being groomed to be a candidate in the next few years. And indeed, we found a site about half-completed, on the way to becoming a tourist destination. It has at least two typical watchtowers that are so common in this part of the country. And a large area with adobe houses, which looked quite picturesque.

We drove northward, following the Omani border first and later the coastline of the Indian Ocean. Here, we scouted for locations of The Rock Art of the Emirate of Sharjah. I had discarded this already early in my planning, but Jay and Philipp had done their research, so we decided to give it a try, but not waste too much time on it. The first official location we tried was at Kalba: it should be an important site (some findings are in the Faya Mleiha museum), but the spot nowadays is a total construction site and fenced off.

We then went on to Al Mudaifi in Khorfakkan, which immediately looked more hopeful. It has signs about it being an archaeological site and yes, there are rocks on a small, accessible hill. Jay and Philipp wasted no time, crossed an empty channel and took off on foot to find the rock art. I stayed behind, scouting with my superzoom camera and was eventually able to find some rock art (and steer the others towards it). Nothing spectacular on an international rock art scale of things, but still, it was the find of the day since we hadn't expected much.

The final tentative site of day one was the Al Bidya Mosque in the Emirate of Fujairah. Being the oldest mosque still existing in the Emirates, it is an important place and it sees its fair share of tourists and worshippers. It also conveniently lies next to the main road. The rather cute adobe design looks straight out of New Mexico.

Day 2: the West Coast

Driving northward from Sharjah City through Ajman, the next Emirate is Umm Al Quwain. Its only Tentative Site is Ed Dur, an interesting archaeological site (at least on paper). The main feature among its prehistoric ruins is a Temple to the Sun God. The site lies next to the main highway (on the East side, follow our location, not Google Maps). Philipp had seen on the satellite view that it was fenced off, and it turned out to be. It's actually a double fence: one around the whole area and then another one around the sets of ruins.

One or two intrepid community members may have sneaked in; I'll leave it to them to tell the story.

Further north, the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah has no less than 4 TWHS. We started with the old pearling town of Jazirat Al-Hamra. It has a 'Heritage Village', so we had something to aim for. It led to a fun insight into how this part of the country is also trying to attract wealthy foreigners, both for a beach holiday and their retirement. We passed the Waldorf Astoria hotel, had to enter a gated community because of a road closure, and enjoyed its street names like Vienna Street. The Al Hamra heritage village is now fully open and we spent quite some time there.

A superficially similar site lies not too far north: the Trading town of Julfar. Here we found the (restored) main mosque and the remains of an urban quarter in a poor state.

And on we went, just another 20 minutes away, we found Shimal, an archaeological site known for its medieval "Queen of Sheba’s Palace". This is where the mountain goats separated themselves from the lowlander - part of the way up has nice stairs, but the last 100m or so is a real scramble, which I skipped. Still, I could shoot a few pictures from just below the top.

We finished at the fort and oasis of Dhayah. This is another item shortlisted from the UAE's Tentative List. It is a pretty fortress seen from a distance, but the site (although well-maintained) lacked some backstory.

Some afterthoughts

• The driving in this area, outside of the main cities, was easy and the roads are good. There are plenty of fast-food restaurants and gas stations for a quick break.
• We skipped Wadi Wurayah, UAE's nomination for next year, because it has been closed for ages and we did not want to do the Oh I have put my toe into the core zone -trick without seeing anything of its values.
• The "best" ones of this batch were Hatta and the Al Bidyah Mosque; however, none seem good enough to be fully recommended for inscription.