Kuranda Rainforest

Part of the reason we came to Cairns to dive was the nearby rainforest we planned to visit during our no fly time interval. Melanie handled all the arrangements for this trip to the town of Kuranda.

We took the Skyrail up into the hills then took the Scenic Railway back. Along the way up on the Skyrail you get a very good view of the rainforest as you pass just over the treeline. We got a great view of how the vegetation changes dramatically as we changed elevation only a couple thousand feet. Kuranda is at an elevation of about 900m (approx. 2953 feet) so it's really not that high up. The Skyrail made a couple stops along the way including one change to a separate line. At the stops there are walking paths and guides to tell you about the jungle plant and animal life.

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Once we got to the town of Kuranda we found it's just a town with touristy stuff to do. There was some shopping in stores as well as a flea market type outdoor market. The highlight of the shopping was getting some Kangaroo, Emu and Crocodile Jerky. There was also a stand where a guy was blending frozen fruit into a delicious cold drink.

Also nearby was a Butterfly Sanctuary which was not included on our tour but we had time and visited anyway. The literature claimed it was the world's largest. That I don't know but it was nice. The inside of the tent-like structure was filled with jungle plants and thousands of local Australian butterflies.

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The next stop on our itinerary was the Rainforestation Nature Park. This nature park was divided into three sections that you can visit in any order. The sections are a Koala and Wildlife Park, Rainforest Tour by Army Duck and Pamagirri Aboriginal Dancers & Dreamtime Walk.

The Wildlife Park was interesting as it had the usual Koalas but also had a large group of Wallabys where you can come right up to them and feed them. There were also some Saltwater Crocodiles, various lizards and some other native Australian animals.

The Rainforest Tour was a relaxing tour of some adjacent jungle by those Army Ducks from World War II that you see in other places such as Wisconsin Dells. I did find the seats to be rather uncomfortable but fortunately the trip was pretty short.

And finally we saw an Aboriginal culture exhibit. That involved a show by the Pamagirri Aboriginal Dancers then the Dreamtime Walk was actually the dancers taking us in smaller groups to learn to throw a boomerang, watch then throw spears then get a quick lesson on how didgeridoos are made and played.

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The bus then took us to the train station where we boarded the Scenic Railway to get back to Cairns. This train returns to Cairns on the other side of the canyon than the Skyrail so we took in a different view. Also unlike the Skyrail the Railway actually goes all the way to downtown Cairns where other buses met us to take us back to our hotel.

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