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Bus
Time for another adventure!The day after Hillary’s big trip to Cape Tribulation, the two of us went on another trip, this time together. Our destination was Kuranda. Throughout our travels, we’d asked around for suggestions of what to visit around Australia. It was a fairly broad question, but on more than one occasion it was suggested to visit Kuranda and take the Skyrail. So now that we were in Cairns, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
That morning we took the tour bus out of the city to the beginning of the Skyrail. You see, what most people do is take the Skyrail to Kuranda (which is a small town) and then take the scenic railway back to Cairns. You could do it in the reverse order, but if you’re only going once, it’s suggested to do the Skyrail first. Anyways, we tagged along with a decent size group for the bus tour, but once we arrived to the Skyrail, everyone was able to explore at their own pace.
The Skyrail is basically a cable car ride above the forest and mountains from the edge of the hills to the town of Kuranda. It’s about 7 km in total and takes around
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Leaving the hub. an hour and a half to complete. The cable cars could carry up to 6 people at a time, but since it was fairly quiet, Hillary and I were able to get one for just the two of us. This ended up being pretty lucky because sure it could seat 6 people, but there was no way that 6 people as active in taking pictures as the two of us were could possibly sit comfortably in such a tiny space. Lol
The view was amazing. You start off at the edge of this relatively small mountain range, with the ocean at your back. You begin climbing up the hills, and you start to see how vast the ocean really is. Every time you come to what looks like the top of the hill, you only realize you still have higher to go. For someone like me, who is fascinated by heights but has always found it pretty scary, the ride was a blast. It felt completely safe, until you start to stare straight down and realize that even the tree tops were getting pretty far away. 0_0
There were a couple of transfer stations along the Skyrail where
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First glimpse of the ocean. you’d have to leave your cable car and get in a new one. But before hopping in the next car, there were opportunities to get a closer look at what you had previously only seen from above. The first transfer had a short tour of the vegetation and insects of the rainforest. We were showed plenty of dangerous plants, some with thorns that catch you and can do some serious damage, and some that can even cause temporary blindness! This was a bit of a refresher course for Hillary though since she learned much of the same during her Cape Trib tour. Lol The next transfer station we got a good look at the falls in the area, but the water flow was fairly low at this time of the year (as it is now the dry season). Water falls in the Top End (northern Australia) tend to be best viewed during the wet season, but of course that’s the time of the year that is the most difficult to get to the northern parts of Australia. Lol
Once to the end of the ride, we were in Kuranda. It was a nice small town surrounded by rainforest, with
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I could have cleaned up a little better. shops, restaurants and a couple of little zoos. They even had a Venom Zoo with all sorts of dangerous animals and reptiles, though we decided not to take part in the tour. Lol We enjoyed a nice lunch, and walked around the town by going through the woods and along the river. Our walk was relaxing and quiet, until Hillary saw a crocodile cruise boat drive by, and realized that a crocodile could pop out at any moment to eat her. Lol From that moment on, the walk was a little more tense as we tip toed along the pathway until we made it back to the busier parts of town.
By this time it was mid afternoon, and we hopped on the scenic railway back to the city. This train would go straight to Cairns Central, which was the mall just minutes from our hostel, so it was perfect for getting home. Not to mention it had plenty of great views throughout the ride as well! We got a better view of the falls, and there was plenty of great scenery to check out as we rode across the side of the hills. Eventually we made it back
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Looks like Hillary's a little shutterbug. to the edge of the small mountain range and got to check out the ocean once again. It’s so easy to not even notice the ocean when you’re in the city (unless you spend all your time on the shoreline), so seeing it from this angle really puts things in perspective. It’s like how I hadn’t realized how close Sydney was to the ocean until we went up the Sydney Tower and saw it within view!
Once home, it’s safe to assume that we were pretty pooped. We both ended up taking 3 hour naps before dinner. Strangely enough, we still didn’t have any trouble getting to sleep just a couple of hours later when it was time to turn in for the night. Lol
The next day was Tuesday, which was quite frankly our traditional movie night by now. We went out that early afternoon and saw Monsters vs Aliens. Decent movie. For the most part it was funny, but certain moments felt a little too childish. It was no Pixar movie, but good for a few laughs. The rest of the day was spent hanging out and doing groceries. Can’t be doing crazy stuff everyday. Lol
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Well, I'm not exactly one to talk. But no worries (a very commonly used Aussie saying, although I’ve been told I used it a lot back in Canada even before this tip) Hillary would be off on another solo adventure just the very next day!
Kevin (and Hillary)
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