Jess woke up with the alarm and got up to make tea, while Jer snoozed a bit more. We had the usual tea and yogurt, plus Jess had her orange-poppyseed muffins and an overly-coconutty apricot-almond muesli bar and Jer had a hot & spicy ramen cup (which was pretty good). We got up a bit earlier than absolutely necessary, so we even had time for a quick walk on the Esplanade, and we saw a float plane land on the water in front of us.
At 8:45am, the Tropical Horizons Tours coach arrived to take us to the Skyrail. We had a few more passengers to pick up, then our driver dropped us at the base station, with tickets for the Skyrail over and the train back. The Skyrail is a 4.7 mile, 35-minute long cable car ride, with stops at the Red Peak and Barron Falls stations; the former has a wet rainforest boardwalk, the latter has lookouts over Barron Falls (which, though long, were less impressive than it would have been in the summer (wet) season). The Skyrail ride was fun, as we got to see the top of the rainforest canopy, with basket ferns, strangler vines and ferns hanging off the eucalypts, firs and other tall trees.
We arrived in Kuranda village and decided to have an early lunch. After wandering a bit, we chose the cheapest of the cafes, where Jer got another hamburger (again lettuce, tomato, onion, sliced beets and barbecue sauce) and Jess had scrambled eggs on toast. Both were pretty good and filled us up.
Once we finished eating, we walked over to the Butterfly Sanctuary, where we waited 10 minutes for a bus to Rainforestation. We used our 4 Park Pass to get in, and it included all three attractions: a 45-minute Army duck boat tour on a rainforest track and into an estuary, a small wildlife park and an Aboriginal cultural display.
The duck boat tour was a little hokey after our Daintree Rainforest tour, but we got to see eastern water dragons and saw-shelled freshwater turtles, as well as pretty purple snakeweed flowers. Also, we learned about the stinging tree (its Aboriginal name translates to "bad, bad tree"), which is covered in tiny hairs that deliver a neurotoxin to anything they touch; the sting can take up to 6 months to heal.
The wildlife area is very small, but ended up being a highlight for us. We saw a massive saltie, called Jack the Ripper because he ate his harem of 12 females at another park! There were also dingos, which look deceptively cute and cuddly; a big goanna (aka monitor lizard); an inquisitive cassowary who followed visitors as they passed his enclosure (and seemed very interested in Cardiff); a peeing wombat; and some very chill kangaroos and wallabies. The best part, though, was that we got to the koala exhibit just as the keeper was bringing them fresh eucalyptus, so they were awake and active, clambering around on their branches awaiting their meal. They were so cute.
Eventually we tore ourselves away from the cute furry animals and headed to the Aboriginal cultural area. A local tribemember named Stephen (whose totemic name translates to "Red Kangaroo") showed us how to throw boomerangs; Jer wasn't half bad, but Jess was hopeless. Stephen then demonstrated spear-thowing, both javelin-style and with a woomera (a throwing stick that made the spear go much farther). Finally, he played a didgeridoo for us, showing us how the lips, tongue, throat and breath are used to play the instrument and then mimicking the sounds of the dingo (quite realistic), kookabura (not bad) and kangaroo (impressionistic). Then it was time to rush up to the stage, where Stephen joined the other Aboriginal guides to perform several dances for the assembled visitors, including one inspired by kangaroos and another by serpents. Perhaps the funniest, though, depicted two villagers felling a honey tree, as the dancer portraying the tree kept getting tickled by the loggers!
After the dance ended, we rushed back to the bus into Kuranda village, which dropped us off at the Butterfly Sanctuary again. This time, we used our 4 Park Pass to go inside, where 1500 butterflies flitted around (and on) us. One brushed Jess's face, giving her butterfly kisses. Jer was quite popular, as one butterfly landed on his arm and another on his camera. We really liked the bright blue Ulysses butterfly, but they were extremely hard to photograph.
Since the last train leaves Kuranda at 3:30pm, we picked up ginger-macadamia scones from Sugarworks (the saleslady had mentioned them earlier), then headed to the railway station (browsing in shop windows along the way). The Kuranda Scenic Railway provided quite a beautiful journey back to Cairns. We had a 10-minute stop overlooking Barron Falls, where the views were even better than from the Skyrail station across the gorge. We then passed through 15 tunnels, as the announcer told us about how the railway was originally built to link the goldmining towns with the port. Between two of the tunnels, we went over a bridge right next to the Stoney Creek waterfall, which was quite pretty despite the limited flow. All in all, it was a very pleasant trip.
Back in Cairns, we got a bit disoriented but eventually found our way to Woolworth's for some breakfast supplies. We returned to the Bellview, where Jer made us some tea, which we carried outdoors with our scones to munch while watching the world go by and writing out postcards. The scones were very tasty, but we decided we hadn't had enough sweet stuff, so we went into Stillwater Sweets, enticed by the free samples of their soft, taffy-like confections. We got a packet of their fantastic ginger candies, which are made with very finely minced fresh ginger - mmm!
After dropping our sweets and teacups back in our room, we headed out to find some dinner. We went to Perrotta's, which the guidebook said was modern Australian but was actually Italian. That didn't really appeal to us, so we wandered around for a bit before settling on Cafe Thailand, since Jer really wanted a spicy soup. Jess generally doesn't like Thai restaurants (having been spoiled by our friend Sucheela's great home cooking), but she thought the chicken spring rolls with sweet chili sauce were pretty good. Jer's "Thai hot" prawn tom yum soup was also tasty, though by the middle of the bowl his eyes were watering from the heat.
Our tummies full, we returned to the Bellview and had ginger sweets, then Jess updated this journal while Jer looked at the day's pictures. (We took a lot of photos.) Since our boat to the Great Barrier Reef was scheduled to leave at 7:30 the next morning and we still needed to pack, we decided to make it a very early night.