Today we were up and out again, this time for 8:40am when the bus was due to pick us up to take us to the Skyrail terminal. We were pretty much last onto the bus so the transfer was not too bad. We collected our tickets and started our day at the Cultural centre.

The Cultural Centre was an interesting setup and the performers were very good but the whole thing seemed to be run by about 6 people which meant that we had to keep to a pretty tight schedule. We arrived at the same time as two huge groups of school children which was less than ideal however, it was interesting to observe that in one group teachers were more irritating than the kids (sorry mum & dad !). The start of the tour was the creation theatre where they told stories of the creation according to their beliefs. It included the way the local people are split into wet or dry and how they have to marry someone of the opposite group. You always follow your fathers side in your type. This was done with polyphonic effects etc.

Next was the dance display and a description of the music and songs. They also showed how they made fire using fire sticks. Interesting dances and very different to that of the Maori. The song they ended with was one from an album they have released with the words proud to be an Aboriginal in it. We then moved on and had a didgeridoo demonstration, the whole way of playing it is amazing and the technique of circular breathing and making different sounds is fabulous. The next area was bushfood and medicine and we saw a number of the foods they traditionally ate etc. How on earth they realised that you could eat certain things after baking it for 3 hours, soaking it for days and then making a bread from it is beyond me. The foods eaten in the wet and the dry are completely different and the toxic foods are only eaten in the wet. We then went and threw some spears and some boomerangs before heading off to the Skyrail.

The skyrail is an amazing journey through and above the rainforest canopy. The first third climbs to the top of the rainforest and we got off and walked around the rainforest canopy along the short boardwalk. The second third took us to the Barron Falls which are stunning and we walked along to the viewpoints to see them more closely. We had lunch at a bench on the way to one of these viewpoints. We then took the skyrail for the final time to head to Karunda village. Karunda village was pretty touristy and we did not really have enough time to do anything more than have a quick look around the shops and let the girls have a play on the park.

At 3:30 our train left for Cairns and we were sat next to a nice Australian couple. The girls were a little harassed for photos by some Japanese tourists but that soon passed. The trip down the mountain by train was stunning and a lovely alternative to going back the way we came.

We arrived back at the hotel around 5:30 and had dinner etc.