Cairns day 2 - Kuranda

The bus that picked me up from my hostel, Calypso, was a little bit late on Saturday so I was getting a bit worried. Just as I was about to call and enquirer about it, it arrived. And I was the first one on it! After I had been picked up the bus met up with another one and picked up a HUGE group of Americans (and some Canadians), all over 50... I was literally the only under 50 on the bus.

We then drove to the train station to get on the train to Kuranda. We still had to wait a while for the train, so I needn't have worried about the buss driver being late. There was also a small museum at the train station about the Kuranda track and a little cafe where we could get some food. Some more people also came to get on the train, so I was no longer the youngest as there were kids.

The train ride was really nice. Beautiful scenery (which I guess is why they call it the scenic route), and the train carriages were old as well. Apparently some of them were as old as 100 years or something! The train was fairly slow so that people could take pictures, and it slowed down even more when there was something special to take pictures of. I had started talking to one of the American couples in my group on the train station, and we also talked together for most of the train ride, they were from Austin, Texas. They were very nice, and we kept bumping into each other throughout the day.

Kuranda was a very nice little village. Kind of "hippey-y", but nice.

While I was there I went to the Butterfly Sanctuary. So many pretty butterflies! None of them landed on me though, but it was amazing to see them so close, and they didn't fly away as soon as I got my camera out, like normal wild ones do.

They also had a venomous animals zoo, but I was a bit too scared of the spiders to go in there. I kind of wish I had though, as I would have learned a lot about the many venomous animals here. But I probably would't have learned anything anyway as I would have been freaking out about the spiders! Would have been cool to have seen the snakes though...

When I left Kuranda I got to take the Skyrail. It had two stops: Barron Falls and Red Peak, and I disembarked (hihi, I know a big word!) on both of them. At Barron Falls I just wandered around on my own and looked at the pretty view and trees.

View from the Skyrail

Do you remember my ReadItSwapIt post? I left one of the books on the Skyrail between Barron Falls and Red Peak, I hid it a little bit so that the staff wouldn't tell me I forgot something as I stepped out. I think the Wood Angel book had a suitable title to be left in the Rainforest. I hope someone found it...

At Red Peak I took a guided tour, just to actually learn something. It only lasted about 15 minutes, but I did learn quite a bit, a lot more than if I had just wandered around on my own. It was free and the guide was really interesting.

One tree is being "strangled" by another.

When I arrived at the end station of the Skyrail I went to Tjapukai, which is an Aboriginal Cultural Park. I bumped into the American couple again there, and I also learned a lot about Aboriginees. I kind of wish I had come down from Kuranda earlier just so that I could have spent a bit more time at Tjapukai.

I got to throw a boomerang at Tjapukai, and I managed to throw it just as well as the Aboriginee that showed us how to do it! It didn't come back to me though, so I didn't manage to catch it.

I'm glad I didn't stay in Kuranda longer as when we were getting on the bus back to Cairns there was an evacuation situation at Kuranda. It was because of the thunderstorm coming. When there's electricity in the air they stop the Skyrail. Which is good of course so no one gets hurt or stuck. Although it wouldn't be all to bad having to look at that scenery for a bit longer.

I told the American couple I met that I want to go to America at some point, and as we were waiting or the bus back to Cairns the lady gave me their address back in Austin and told me if I was ever there to give them a call, and that they had a spare room I could borrow! Which I though was really nice. I might try and keep in touch with them. Write them a letter occasionally... They went to Darwin Saturday night. I hope they have a nice time up there. At least since they're from Texas they're fairly used to the heat and humidity!

When I got back to the hostel it was even worse than it was on Thursday! Seriously. Is it that hard to keep a room that you share fairly tidy? I mean, I can be messy in my own bedroom, but that's because I don't share it, every room that I know other people will see I always keep tidy! No, there were no lockers or anything to put your stuff in in the room, but I managed to keep my things away from the floor.... Oh well... I guess I'll see plenty more of those messy rooms when I start staying at hostels more often.