After my dive trip plans were changed, I organised a day tour to Kuranda, a cute village in the mountains. I took the Kuranda Skyrail to get there, which used to be the longest in the world until they built a longer one in Hong Kong. It was a little scary to be hanging from one bar attached to one little so high above the canopy! At this point I chuckled to myself that I was supposed to be recovering in bed, No one could ever say that a cold got the best of Michelle!

Oh, and an amazing coincidence happened on the way to the Skyrail – I ran into my Polish friend Sabine from my Jillaroo course in August! We hadn’t crossed paths since Brisbane, so imagine how lucky we were to run across each other of all places in Cairns, and on the same daytrip. I joined up with her and her four guy buddies (from Poland) for the day of sightseeing.

Kuranda was cute and there was a lot of local handiwork and souveneir shops, plus beautiful rainforest hikes, however we only needed half a day to see all there was to see. The only situation that you may need more than a few hours in Kuranda would be if you want to do all the local bushwalks.

The best part of the day trip was the scenic train ride back on the Kuranda Scenic Train. Spectacular views! We learned a lot about its history, which I’ll not bore you with, except that it wasn’t originally built as the tourist attraction it mainly is today. The relaxing rocking of the train, with the breeze from the open window and the rainforest rolling by, was a perfect end to the day. The train even paused for 10 minutes by the Barron Falls to let all the passengers get out, have a stretch and take pictures of the beautiful sight.

Stay tuned! Next episode, more snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.