Kuranda

Kuranda Rainforest via Sky Cable

Kuranda Scenic Railway

Caitlin and Kailani's new koala friend

Sean and Kailani feeding a wallaby (essentially, a small version of a kangaroo)


08.08.08: On our last day there, we had one more tour. This time we went south, past Cairns, to Kuranda, also considered a World Heritage site. The first part of our day, we took a cable car up over the rainforest canopy. You could get off a couple times on the way up and view different parts of the forest and scenic views like huge waterfalls. At the top of the cable car was the town of Kuranda, where you could eat lunch and explore for a while. So, after our meat pies, Tutu went in search of a digerido. Sean, Cait, Kai and I went to a Koala Sanctuary. It’s one of the few places where you can actually hold one. As we found out later, it’s illegal in the state of New South Wales, where Sydney is. I’m not sure if it’s for humanity reasons. But, the gals at The Sanctuary told us that each koala is only held for a few hours per week, and the koalas didn’t seem to mind. They normally sleep for 20 hours a day and the one Caitlin held barely even woke up! Also there, we got to feed wallabies, which are smaller versions of kangaroos. It was pretty fun. Kailani still keeps asking to go back! After our time in town, we boarded the Kuranda Scenic Railway train, originally built in 1891. We snapped off many pictures as it was very scenic: going through the hills, seeing into a valley of rainforest, and going past more waterfalls. When we were finished, the driver was able to take us to the Cairns airport for our flight back to Sydney. How well did that work out!

Overall, we had a great 6 days up in North Queensland. After almost every local told us that it was pouring rain the week before we got there and the weather was again supposed to pick-up the day after we leave, we really felt like we lucked out. So far, we were able to see three UNESCO World Heritage sites, all of which were well worth it. And, there’s still more to come!