Exploring Cairns-Kuranda, Skyrail, and Rainforestation Tour

I had a little bit of time when I returned from the reef before I headed back to Fiji so I looked into doing a day trip that incorporated a lot of what Cairns had to offer all in one. I was looking into doing a Daintree Rainforest tour but I didn't go up quite that far. Instead I did a trip out to the Kuranda Forest.

Another early morning, up and ready to be picked up at 7 but the bus ride was less than an hour. The first place we stopped at was the Rainforestation center. I had been waiting a long time for this! I finally got to hold a koala: 

I also got to stroll around with the kangaroos and wallabies that were just chillin in the walkways. They were used to people feeding them and were very calm around humans. Of course the kangaroos I choose had to be convinced first to hang out with me: 

"Hey you..."

"Look what I got..."

Success!

Most of the other animals were pretty dangerous to be around so they were fenced in: 

cassowary-most dangerous bird in the world...keep your fingers away!

Crikey!

Dingos

Koalas are sweet, but they literally sleep 20 hours a day. We were fortunate to be around when they were awake.

Yes I would love to take you home with me!

With a wallaby

After the Koala and Wildlife Park stop, we had a "Dreamtime Walk". The Pamagirri guide was an aboriginal who shared his culture (and weapon throwing!) with us. 

our tour guide

Learning how to throw a boomerang

The didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a musical instrument played by the aboriginals. It's pretty much a hollow piece of wood and you use your throat and lips to play it. It sounds very "tribal-y", but if you're good at it, apparently you can play up to an hour without stopping!

Next he showed us the different ways they throw spears, whether to hunt fish, small animals, or larger animals like kangaroos.

For the conclusion of the Dreamtime Walk, we had a nice little performance of some ritual tribal dances. The last dance called for three volunteers, and unluckily I was chosen as one of the three. I was just watching and minding mine own business on the side when one of the dancers pointed at me and literally the whole arena just turned and looked at me. I tried to say no but there was no turning back. One of the girls in my group took some pictures of me on stage so we swapped email addresses, but who knows if I'll ever get them!

After the aboriginal portion, we loaded into an Army Duck boat for the tour through the rainforest via land and water. The vehicle we used was an old WWII vehicle that had wheels to travel on land but was also capable of being driven like a boat once in the water.

The rainforest wasn't as cool as the wildlife park...lots of trees and ferns to point out, but not as many animals. In fact, the only animal we saw was a small lizard.

After the army duck tour, we went into the town of Kuranda, where there are several shops and handicraft and heritage markets. Lots of cool stuff to look at, my favorite were the art shops of canvas paintings or photographs. I also ventured out and ate kangaroo...I felt like I had to try something new! Of all people to run into at the markets, I ran into Alisha and had a great time looking around with her. Fortunately both of our tours finished up around the same time and we were both taking the Skyrail back to Cairns. 

The Skyrail is kind of like a ski lift but it has completely closed in gondolas. While its only 7.5 km, the entire trip takes around 1.5 hours and is like a canopy tour. There are two stops, the Barron Falls station and the Red Peak station before it ends in Cairns. 

Barron Falls station:

 The Red Peak station wasn't as fun...it had been raining all day but the fog really kicked in...so this is what we saw: 

I'm sure there's a red peak in there somewhere??

All in all it was a great experience and I really liked being so high up in the sky, especially when it was getting misty...it gave it a little bit of an element of surprise! That pretty much wraps up everything I did in Cairns! It was definitely a lot of stuff in a little bit of time, but I was able to relax a bit before my flight to Brisbane. Australia in general is a lot like the United States, a little bit more expensive, but same daily life activities so after seeing the reef and seeing the animals, I was ready to head back to Fiji!  Brisbane with Andrew was a fun day but that will be in my next blog post :)