Cairns

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After we left the Steve and Sharon’s in the Daintree we headed to Kym’s sister Gabe’s home in Cairns, Gabe’s hubby Das was on his week off on R&R and their two boys Jacob and Daniel opened their home to us. Cairns was very hot and consequently we spent time recovering from a couple of thirst quenching sessions lounging in deliciously cool aircon - what a treat!!
In the days we spent in Cairns Gabe and Das showed us to a couple of freshwater swimming holes, and we all went up the into the hills behind Cairns for a day at the market town of Kuranda. There are several market places there, along with the Australian Venom zoo and a butterfly sanctuary. We did the tour of the venom zoo which had tanks of lots of venomous snakes, and a guided tour of some less nasty critters. The guys running the show actually breed tarantulas for milking their venom and as such were very keen demonstrators, we leant about the freshwater stonefish - a critter that looks as ugly as the saltwater kind and just as nasty, they had scorpions, centipedes, funnelweb spiders and some cute leafy stick insects which apparently make cool pets! The highlight was as we left they had their largest snake, a python they named Rammstein out for us and we all had a nervous hold of him. They snake was quite oily but according to his handler it was a protective layer they rub on him to prevent human aftershaves and moisturisers affecting his skin.
The highlight of our brief stay in Cairns was a trip from Cairns back up to Kuranda, but this time via the Skyrail. The Skyrail is a cable car that runs up the mountain, over rainforest and across the Barron river to Kuranda. The trip up was definitely not for those with a fear of heights as at some points it seemed you were hundreds of metres in the air, especially when you looked back towards Cairns! Poor Daniel didn’t enjoy it too much, looking for an alternate way back at both of the intermediate stations the car stops at. We had lunch in Kuranda and then travelled back down the mountains via the Kuranda train, a much more relaxed way to travel although we did pass mighty close to some sheer drop offs and over some quite rickety bridges.
We both enjoyed catching up with Gabe and Das, Jacob and Daniel and thank them all for allowing us to stay at their house and for showing us around.

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Photos

Skyrail
Looking back over Cairns

Jacob & Daniel
Wondering when the ride will end!

Barron River
Coming into Kuranda