Tropical rainforest

Today we took a trip to Kuranda which is a very quaint, but very commercialised, town in the mountains north of Cairns.

It's was more about the trip that the destination. The journey there was on the SkyRail, which is a 15km cable car ride skimming the canopy of the tropical rainforest. It's an amazing ride, as much for the sounds of the forest as the sights.

We took a couple of stops on the way and had a walk through the rainforest, on specially prepared walkways as the forest is protected. At one of the stops a casewary had been spotted a few minutes earlier but sadly, we didn't see it.

Kuranda is a very pretty, and very laid-back, old town. There's not a lot there except shops, restaurants, pubs and a butterfly sactuary. We visited the butterfly sanctuary where we surrounded by, and sometimes landed on, by some of the prettiest and largest butterflies in the world. We had a drink in Fanny O'Reilly's, a pub which was used as a medical post by the Americans in World War II, and ended our time in Kuranda with a walk along the river (trying to avoid the marsh flies).

The trip back to Cairns was on the Kuranda Scenic Railway. The railway was built in the late 1800's using mainly convict labour and gave some really spectacular views along the way. We took the train all the way into Cairns Central Station and walked the last few blocks back to the hotel.

We had our evening meal at Rattle and Hum, our favourite haunt on The Esplanade, when we raised a glass to Sally's dad who passed away exactly one year ago today.

Both of us were really pleased that we'd changed our plans in Sydney as Cairns was a place we wouldn't have wanted to miss.