A Walk in the Woods

I’m stealing the title for today’s post (Day 14) from a book of one of my most favorite authors: Bill Bryson.

And a walk in the woods we went on yesterday! Leaving Cairns in the morning, we headed just about 15 minutes to the north, to catch the SkyRail Rainforest Cableway to a lofty ride over the rain forest tree tops.

With 2 stations in the middle of the rain forest, visitors get to enjoy the walkways laid out through the dense woods and can read up on the different plants and trees which are around them. To get into the right mood for the rain forest, it was raining – sometimes just a little drizzle, sometimes a real downpour. But nothing to stop us from exploring the sights.

As we approached the lookouts for the Barron Falls (a major sight to see on this ride), the mist & clouds lifted a bit to enable us a great view of the falls.

A little while later, we hopped on the SkyRail again to get to its final station: Kuranda. An Aboriginal town in the middle of the forest – turned tourist trap. Kinda sad, but we made sure to make the best of it. Kirk wanted to see the Butterfly Sanctuary, and when you’ve looked through today’s Photo Gallery, you will agree it’s worth seeing!

Afterward it was time for lunch, and as we passed by a German Wurst Lokal, there was no doubt about where we would eat today: here! Weisswurst and Kaeseknacker with Sauerkraut, Kartoffelsalat and echtes Deutsches  Brot! Yummm!

Then it was time to get back to the real world, so we walked back to the Kuranda station and took the SkyRail back to the base station.

Now being already in the middle of the afternoon, we headed to the Cairns Airport, returned our rental car (after adding a total of 3,176 km to it), and checked in for our flight back to Sydney on Virgin Blue. Take off shortly after 6pm, we arrived in Sydney at 10 pm (+1 hr time zone difference), took the train & a cab to the Sydney Marriott and called it a day!

Our trip has come full circle, and with only 1 1/2 days left, we’re planning on taking it slow now! Cheers!