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Published: July 26th 2008
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The weather seems a little better this morning. Our plan is to get back close to Cairns so that we do not have to far to travel tomorrow, when the camper has to be returned. With that in mind, we are aiming for Ellis Beach, which is about 30 km from Cairns. As we travel, the day gradually brightens, and when we get to Ellis Beach, we have full-on sunshine. However, the campsite does not have any powered sites left, and after spending the previous evening powerless, we had realised just how useful power is... so we decided to move on. Our next hopeful site is in Kuranda, which is about 30km away, but still just 30 km from Cairns. When we arrive there is no one manning reception. We wait around 5 minutes with no joy, then Eddie goes off exploring the site; on the way, she spots someone who shortly after presents himself at reception. They do indeed have powered sites available, and we swiftly find one.
We decided to walk into Kuranda village itself, where The Butterfly Sanctuary, Bird World, and the Koala Gardens were. After being misled a bit by our SatNav - NavMan being the
brand to avoid - we found our way first to the Butterfly Sanctuary. Unfortunately, we were a bit late arriving, and had limited time to spend visiting the attractions. We decided anyway to sign up for the butterflies and the birds. And we started with the Butterfly Sanctuary. And it was fantastic! Within about 60 seconds of entering, there were butterflies landing on us, and on the camera, with the most amazing colours. Everywhere, they were flitting about, pretending it was just normal to be landing on people every hour of the day. And they just looked fantastic.
Next, we headed to Bird World, which was about 2 minutes walk away. The lady at the door took pity on us, I think, because we were a little late arriving and would not be able to spend too long there - so the gave us her last bag of bird feed for free. Then we went in and jeez huh? Wha? Pounce. Birds. Wha? They didn't waste any time! Within seconds I found a very large parrot perching on my shoulder and in no uncertain terms intimating that he would very much like certain items that I had in my
possession. So I gave him a sesame see, which he immediately threw on the floor. I guessed that meant that was not what he wanted. Next out of the bag was a bit of biscuit, which he immediately threw on the floor. Hmm. Perhaps a piece of celery. Floor. Maybe an almond? Ahh... almonds! I have a friend for life. The way he handles an almond astonishes me. I, as must you, have struggled to crack an almond open with a nutcracker. This guy has it open in less than a second using only his beak. I must confess, I already felt a little intimidated having him on my shoulder. I now realise that he is certainly capable of taking a finger off me at any time, let alone an ear. I start hunting for more almonds...
Eventually, I manage to shift him onto Eddie. In the meantime, a couple of other birds have been showiong some interest in us both, both of a parroty nature, but not so large (or aggressively inclined) as the Red Beast (who eventually lets Eddie breath again after a while). It's great fun feeding these guys. I've never really touched a bird before,
but was amazed at how connected I felt with them. Particularly sweet was a cockatoo, who, although quite a bit larger than many of the other birds, seemed very gentle for his size. He also seemed more interested in just being with us, rather than beign solely interested in the food. He seemed an amazingly sweet animal. Eventually, we did move oon and explore the rest of the enclosure, but nothing compared to that part, quite frankly. The other birds were pretty enough, but they had no particular inclination to interact. When we completed the loop back to the start, we once again found ourselves with the parrots and cockatoos. A few more great minutes there, then it was closing time and we had to leave...
Had a pleasant walk home, observing a couple of the captive birds and butterflies we had just seen in the wild. Then we got a couple of good lazing hours in, before making our way into Kuranda again (this time by van) for dinner. However, Kuranda was very dead - we did manage to find to places to eat after much searching, eventually settling on a Sri Lankan place. The area was so
dead, though, that we were the only diners there (at least, after 5 minutes we were... was it something we said?). Furthermore, the staff at the restaurant consisted of one guy, fulfilling the roles of Maitre d', waiter and cook! The food was nice enough, though nothing to write home about. We then headed home, where it's possible we had a beer or two, and a game approximating Scrabble, before a contended sleep...
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