After my dive course plans were changed, I booked a day tour to Kuranda, a quaint little village in the mountains. I travelled there by the Kuranda Skyrail, which once was the longest in the world until they built a longer one in Hong Kong. It was a little scary to be hanging from one littlebar attached to one cable high above the rainforest canopy! At this point I giggled to myself because I was meant to be recovering in bed, No one could ever say that a cold got the best of Melanie!
Oh, and an amazing coincidence happened on the way to the Skyrail – I ran into my French friend Monica from my Jillaroo week in September! We hadn’t seen each other since Tamworth, so imagine how lucky we were to run into each other of all places in Cairns, and on the same daytrip. I joined up with her and her two girl mates (from Poland) for the day of sightseeing.
Kuranda was amazing and there was a lot of Aboriginal art and crafts and souveneir shops, plus beautiful rainforest hikes, however we only required half a day to see everything. If you wanted to explore all the hikes you could use the whole day.
The highlight of the day tour was the scenic train ride back on the Kuranda Scenic Train. Spectacular views! We learned quite a bit about its history, which I’ll not bore you with, except that it wasn’t originally built as the tourist attraction it mainly is today. The relaxing rocking of the train, with the breeze from the open window and the countryside rolling by, was a perfect end to the day. The train even stopped for 10 minutes at the Barron Falls to let all the passengers get out, stretch their legs and take photos of the waterfall.
Stay tuned! Next episode, more snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.