Good Day Matey:

Today we ventured out to the Rainforest in Kuranda. It is the oldest living tropical rainforest with the Village of Kuranda smack dab in the middle of it. It is more than 120 million years old. We took a sky rail car up and over the canopy and made a couple stops along the way. When we first got in, the guy helping us in was taking a photo of our car and then ran around taking selfies. He was quite funny.

The first stop was a small guided tour around a certain area in the rainforest. We learned about its history and the type of wildlife that could be found there. I don’t think we could have found a hotter and more humid day to visit the rainforest and it was still very interesting.

Our next stop on the sky rail took us to an area filled with waterfalls. Everywhere you looked there was one. With the flooding here in Cairns, the water level was high and the falls were rapid.

We then went to the town of Kuranda. It is known for the Rainforest and being a picturesque mountain retreat. They had your typical touristy stores to buy souvenirs and they offered a trip through Birdworld, a Koala rescue and Butterfly world to take your local money off your hands. We were wise and decided to try one of the three before lumping it together for a discount. Needless to say, we didn’t go to the other two.

It was a nice sleepy town, surrounded by beautiful mountains and it was a great place to grab lunch. We then hopped on the Kuranda Scenic Railway for our train trip back to our bus. The railway winds its way from Kuranda back to Cairns and also makes a couple stops on the way. It took about an hour and a half to get to our stop and for those moments our eyes were open, it was beautiful. The tracks sit high above the terrain of the Barron Gorge and there were 15 tunnels we passed through. It was a really nice ride at the end of a long hot day so staying awake for the Michigan 6 was a task.

Upon our return (and after our clean up) we met most of our group for a drink to celebrate a birthday. It was nice to be altogether and get to know other people on our tour. Then dinner and then bed….

It was another great day in Australia. Packing up and leaving for Melbourne tomorrow a.m.

Passing out in our room…..

Cici at Sea signing off….