I was able to get a nice long run in this morning: round the marina, along the esplanade and out towards the airport. The heat was stifling even at 7.15am, but you soon get used to it after a few miles. I wanted to do a couple of off road tracks in the Whitfield Conservation Park, but apparently there's a sign saying 'Do Not Run' at the start of them because of the risk of being attacked by a Cassowary. They are large, flightless birds with the ability to gut you with their sharp claws and run up to at least 50km per hour... I didn't fancy my chances.

Sarah and I took a trip to Kuranda today, a lovely village up in the rainforest. We took the Skyrail, a cableway which glides for an hour and a half over 7.5km of rainforest and the Barron River in to Kuranda. There are two stops along the way - a short rainforest walk and a lookout to the Barron Falls. These are spectacular in photos from past wet seasons, but all the rain seems to be battering the east coast further south this year, so they looked rather tame today. The views from the Skyrail were fantastic though, we could see back to Cairns and all along the coastline. It's a much more fun way to see the rainforest - this way I don't have to worry about any animals attacking me!

Kuranda itself is famous for its markets so we had a good browse around those, although we didn't buy anything other than fresh frozen fruit pots - I had dragon fruit for something different - it's bright pink and very tasty!

We also went to the wildlife park, mostly just because we wanted to see a koala, having not found any in the wild yet. We were uber keen so paid extra to cuddle one and have our photo taken... (I know, what have I done with Emma?!) That photo will of course be taking prime position on the mantelpiece when I'm back! There were also more snakes, crocodiles, turtles and kangaroos, but they're not as fun to see when they're cooped up in a zoo.

For the return journey to Cairns, we booked the scenic railway, which takes two hours. It's supposedly one of the most scenic journeys in the world, but I think once you've seen a bit of rainforest, you've seen it all.

We had another excuse to go out for dinner tonight - it's mine and Dan's last night in Cairns, although we didn't splash out this time, just went for a backpacker special at the Woolshed, a popular party bar for young travellers. Gutted of course that I couldn't stay for tonight's beach party, but my airport shuttle departs at 6.30am tomorrow! Melbourne, here I come!