G'Day

Well our time in Cairns is whizzing by so fast and the days are so jam packed. We have had another day out today to Kuranda. After being dropped at the Caravonica terminal outside Cairns we boarded the Skyrail for our 7.5km (4.5 miles) trip to the town of Kuranda. The trip is done in 2 sections, firstly its the the short 2.8km section to Red Peak Station over the top of the forest canopy looking down into the rainforest it is pretty amazing. Once we disembarked at the station we took a 25 minute guded tour with one of the rangers who told us all about bush plants and trees and a bit about bush tucker and the healing properties of some plants.

All the while in the background you have a constant buzz of cicadas, true rainforest feeling. The rainforests in Oz are special because the whole continent used to be covered but as it dryed up over millions of years it just left these little pockets.

Anyway I digress we then jumped back on the gondola for stage 2 of the trip a 4.8km ride to Kuranda at the top. This completed our journey on the worlds longest skyrail.

Once in Kuranda we had a few hours to look around the craft stalls and markets as well as fit in lunch, once again it was a glorious 31 degrees. I even bought myself a new hat for when we get to the real hot weather in Darwin and Alice Springs.

Once lunch was finished we boarded the scenic railway for our descent through Barron Gorge and back to Cairns. It was a slow scenic ride through rainforest and past waterfalls all the way back down as far as Freaswater Station. The indiginous people believe that Buda Dji (the carpet snake) carved out Barron Gorge and he is painted on the locomotives that bring you down the mountain.

Lots of Love

M & M