The next morning I caught the bus to the Skyrail terminal. From there I took a ride on the 7.5km cable car system above the rainforest canopy to Kuranda. Here are a couple of shots from the journey.
There are two stations to stop off along the way, the first has a short 10 minute guided walk through a small section of the forest, the second station looks out over the Barron Falls. The Barron River is dammed and there hasn't been much rain yet, so the waterfalls weren't as spectacular as they could be - but a still a fantastic view.
When I arrived at Kuranda it was around 11am and Flintoff & Peitersen were batting trying to save the 3rd test. So I had a couple of drinks at an Irish bar and watched the cricket, had my lunch there and then had a walk around Kuranda. It's a small town mainly comprised of shop & markets selling local crafts, plus some small wildlife parks.I'd informally arranged to try and meet up with Matt & Kari tomorrow, so I decided not to do any of the major attractions today and instead went on one of the rainforest walks.
I was surprised how deserted it was, Kuranda is packed with visitors but I only saw three local kids swimming in the river. I wouldn't say it was quiet though - the rainforest is teeming with life, although you can't see it you can definitely hear it (mainly the chirping of Cicadas and other insects).
The next day I spent the morning looking around the markets, it was early in the holiday so I didn't buy anything - just looking for present ideas for later on. I knew Matt & Kari wouldn't be arriving until around lunch so after I'd eaten I decided to give myself 30 minutes or so around the markets and if I didn't see them I would do my own thing.
It didn't take me long to spot them and we all agreed the best place to go was the Koala Gardens. They had a few other local animals at the gardens, the main highlights were hand feeding Wallabies and cuddling the Koalas. Below are a couple of shots taken by Matt.
We didn't have a lot of time before the last ride back on the Skyrail, so we took a short walk through the rainforest (luckily the one I didn't do yesterday).
M&K had a transfer back to Cairns included in their package, I was just getting the local bus. So we arranged to meet that evening for dinner near their hotel, it was a pretty decent meal at an English pub - so I obviously went for the curry!
We had an enjoyable, but short evening - I had to be up at 6am for my trip to Undara...
