Day 11 - Kuranda Skyrail

Today's excursion was to the Atherton Tablelands - amazing rainforest inland of Cairns.

Started out by taking a cable car up from The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum (WHAT!!! why wasn't this place mentioned in the tour guide???) into the rainforest. Spectacular views across the forest canopy.

Floating across the treetops in the cable car we saw various types of trees, birds and epiphytes.

We had some time in Kuranda which is a bit of a hippyish/arty town up in the forest (where there were some cool old trees). Karen bought a skirt and I got some jerky. We also picked what will need to be our main souvenir of the trip, a stunning limited-edition photograph (will be with us in 4-6 weeks), now need to work out where to hang it!

We took a trip in an old DUKW amphibious vehicle...

...and learned more about the flora - seems this is pretty much as dangerous as the fauna e.g. one that'll sting you with a sting that can be reactivated up to a year later and even after it's dead the sting is still potent for 100 years, another one that's like natural barbed wire and so strong that (on a previous tour) one about the thickness of some garden string nearly pulled an 11 year old out of the DUKW after he attached it to his shirt!

Onto the old Kuranda railway for the trip back to Cairns, a leisurely (but hot) ride through more rainforest.

I discovered a great vantage point to take photos from - the dunny!

For dinner we went to the night market for the 'experience' of the array of the 'stack your plate' Asian food stalls. Very good value and tasty, but I wasn't overly keen on this chap...