Smiling Crocodiles and Cuddly Koalas in Cairns

For this week’s “down-under” adventure, we going to spy some wildlife. To recap, we’ve visited the magical land of Uluru, walked the lane ways in Melbourne, visited the famous boxes at Brighton beach, cried at the opera and swam with the sea turtles. But can a trip to Australia REALLY be complete without the smiling crocodiles and cuddly koalas in Cairns? Join us as we hop a train to the rain forest. Toot toot!

Taking the Kuranda Scenic Railway

We were at the station early to catch our train. One of best things about this particular excursion was that the rides to and from the rain forest were part of the fun. We took the classic train, which is a restored train with a wooden interior and leather seats. This train takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes to travel the 37KM from Cairns to Kuranda village. There is a faster train we could have taken, but what’s the fun in that??

Views Along the Way

The train travels through the dense rain forest and stops at Barron Gorge Park and Barron Falls. These pictures really don’t do justice to justice, but we tried.

Wildlife Park

When we got off the train, we over heard someone saying that we could cuddle with koalas if we skipped all the village shops and made a bee line to the wildlife park. As you could guess, we walked as fast as possible directly to the cuddly bears. They did NOT disappoint.

Up Close and Personal

The park had many opportunities to interact with the animals, including hand feeding a kangaroo and kissing a sleeping croc.

Just kidding.

And we did get to canoodle with a couple koalas.

Indigenous Entertainment

After the wildlife adventure, we were watched a spear throwing demonstration and were given boomerang lessons before we were treated to tribal singing and dancing that honored the locals’ heritage.

Duck Boat Tour

Having been to Boston a time or two, we were familiar with the CONCEPT of a duck boat. But the rain forest seemed like the best possible time to find out about its reality.

My favorite fact is that the rainforest is infused and surrounded by a strong, barbed vine called “stay-awhile”. This vine allows the massive tress to stay upright in hurricane force winds by binding them to each other. For humans, this vine can rip you right off a motor-cycle, if you come in contact with it while riding.

Sky Tram over the Forest

We decided to take THE MOST SPECTACULAR mode of transportation back to Cairns, the 5 mile, Sky Rail ride above the rainforest. We “oohed “ and “ahhhed” for the full 90 minutes we were in our private gondola.

And the Twelve Apostles was the most EPIC.

Melbourne had big city vibes…

And they have penguins!

We (I) cried at the Sydney opera House.

We swam with sea turtles in Cairns.

And we didn’t even mention…

It was the time of our life and every day was an adventure. Thank you, Australia!

Thanks for coming with us to the land “down unda”. And in case you were wondering, we had NO close encounters with venomous snakes or large spiders. Thank God.

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