Kuranda

 Black cockatoos

 The parakeet right after he bit through my necklace.

Meeting a cassowary head on.

 Cuddling a koala.

 Freshwater crocodiles

 A boy and his didgeridoo playing for tips.

 The view of the Cairns area from the Kuranda Scenic Railway.

The view from the Skyrail.

Wednesday June 29^th

When I got up in the morning I heard the two guys next door packing up their dirt bikes so I went out and talked to them about their trip to the northern tip of Cape Point. It took them three days to get there along pretty rough roads some paved and some with very rough corrugations and loose sand or red dirt. They told me about a 'spot tracker' they carry that leaves like digital or electronic bread crumbs so they can be traced by family on the internet in case they get in trouble. After they left I talked to the motel owner who was also off on a motorcycle road trip. I was jealous of all the riding but it's better for me to be driving.

Finally I got underway and drove to the town of Kuranda. This is a town up on a mountain plateau that can be reached by a famous scenic railroad. I had been thinking about booking a ride on the train but decided to drive there instead as I was approaching it from the opposite direction. I got to town before all the train tourists so it was very quiet. I wandered around for a bit before finding the Bird Aviary and the Koala Gardens. The aviary was excellent; the kind that you walk into and the birds are free to fly around. There were many species of parrots, water birds, cockatoos (including the black one that I saw yesterday) and a cassowary. I wandered around happily taking photos including some close ups of the cassowary. A parrot landed on my shoulder and bit through the chain I had around my neck. Luckily I didn't loose it or the Canadian coin pendent on it. After about an hour I went to the Koala Garden and saw lizards, wallabies, sugar gliders, wombats and koalas. I paid $20 to be photographed while holding 'Joshy' the koala. Great experience! Very soft and cuddly.

After that I went down to the train station to take a photo of it arriving and it was already there. I looked at the rates and got talking to a couple who were buying a ticket for the train down to Cairns and then the Skyrail back up again. I decided to do the same thing. So I purchased the tickets and then went back to town to explore the shops, markets and aboriginal art shops while waiting for the 2pm departure. I also used the wifi at the tourist information kiosk to book a cheap hotel in Cairns for the night.

I bought a chicken burger for lunch and talked to two guys (a father and son combo) I shared a table with who had just returned from a drive to Cape York in a 4x4. They too talked about how rough the roads were and said they had see a number of people on motorcycles and bicycles!

I rode the train with the couple I had talked to earlier (Darren and Helen) and we had a good time on the old train. It travels along a narrow ledge that hundreds of workers had cut out of the mountain in the late 1800's. It follows the river, but hundreds of feet above it, as it gradually descends to the flat lands around Cairns. There are a number of beautiful waterfalls along the way. When we arrived at the bottom we were loaded into a coach for the transfer to the Skyrail. This is a gondola ride back up to Kuranda. It is over 8km long and is in three sections. You have to get off twice to change sections. The views were spectacular!

All told the two rides took three hours. I was glad of the company and we exchanged e-mails as they live about an hour from Chelsea. Darrin is a mechanic but has done heaps of other interesting things like driving tour buses all over the country, driving through the outback and working on a cattle station. Interesting guy. Then we split up and I drove back down the mountain to the hotel in Cairns. The road down was almost as exciting as the train or the skyrail! It was narrow and full of tight turns as it descended through the forest to the bottom.

I grabbed a Moroccan sandwich from Subway that they have been advertising and went back to the hotel where I fought a losing battle with the internet, but did manage to book another hotel for tomorrow night.