Up to the Rainforest

The hotel finally figured out that we were getting free internet and cut us off. Hence the no posting for a couple days. We found a great internet cafe in town though...

On Saturday, we headed up to the Kuranda Rainforest. The bus dropped us off at the Freshwater train station about 20 km from town and we boarded the "historic" Kuranda Railway. It was a very scenic trip from the coastal lowlands around Cairns up to the heart of the rainforest in Kuranda. At the top, the city of Kuranda is a textbook definition of "tourist trap". There were shops touting all sorts of boomerangs and Australian souvenirs...all made in China of course! We did manage to find some authentic Australian items mixed in with the bunch. The neatest part of the day was our visit to the Koala Sanctuary. They have a rescue operation for Koalas and for a little extra money, you can get your picture takes cuddling with them. Christina and I both did it and took a great picture that will probably end up on our Christmas card :-).

After a few hours shopping and hiking around the rainforest, we boarded the Kuranda Skyrail to get back to Cairns. Think of a skiing gondola and suspend it 125 feet above the rainforest and that pretty much describes the skyrail. There were two stops along the way. One at the overlook to Barron Falls, which was not very impressive due to the low water levels. The second stop was in the middle of the rainforest for more hiking. Eventually we ended up back down in the Cairns Lowlands and got on the bus back to town.