Kuranda and The Barron Falls

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After about thirty-six hours of being awake, including a manic twelve hours in the humidity of Hong Kong, the arrivals process and also the time difference of nine hours 9 hours we were completely exhausted and glad to just collapse into bed in the air-conditioned rainforest house. That evening we ventured into Cairns to do a bit of shopping but that was all we were fit for.

We woke the next day, still tired but determined to spend our day well. We went into the city and found a church, Cairns Baptist Church, where we worshiped. We got into the city too late for the first service and too early for the second. To fill the time we went to Rusty's Market. This market, which happens every weekend, is amazing. More than half of it is fruit and vegetables and there are some unusual ones. Firstly, we found at least three different kinds of banana, including some that were red. These seemed completely normal though compared to some fruits which we had never heard of. We tried bitter melon on a pizza later in the week. This green knobbly fruit lived up to its name: it had the texture of a pepper but was the most bitter thing I have ever eaten - it was quite unpleasant. By far the strangest fruit though was called the Black Sapote, or more colloquially, the 'chocolate pudding fruit'. It was as temperamental as a avocado but when ripe it's flesh was a deep rich shade of brown and was sweet, and tasted not entirely unlike chocolate. Lindsey ate it with her porridge as if it was Nutella.

After church we went for a drive to Kuranda, the "village in the rainforest". The road was amazing - it led up a rainforest covered slope and was a series of bends for maybe fifteen kilometres. Before we arrived in the village we took a turn off the road and headed for the Barron Falls. We had already crossed the Barron Creek on our way and found it to be a wide deep river. The falls were observed from two viewing platforms. From the top of the hill the view was pretty but nothing special. At the bottom of the hill though we could see them in their magnificence as they tumbled down the hill. The water level was quite low so we didn't get to see the full splendour of the raging torrent shown on postcards but still they were pretty amazing.

From the Barron Falls car park we almost missed a turn towards Wright's Lookout but I'm glad we didn't. After a very short walk we came to another viewing platform and from here could see the valley down which the Barron Creek flowed. It was a gorgeous view. Soon though the heat and humidity got the better of us and we retreated for a few minutes in the cool car.

We drove to Kuranda which turned out to be a charming little village full of all kinds of craft shops where you could buy anything from Scottish fudge to kangaroo scrotums. Kuranda is also the stop for the Skytrain which is a scenic railway journey from Cairns. We would have like to do this but it was far too expensive and we felt we'd seen almost as much by driving. We didn't have any regrets. Wandering the stalls of Kuranda was fascinating but tiring and soon we couldn't take more in so we went home. Considering our already tired state, it felt like a very long day.

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