Cairns, Queensland, Day 2
December 22, 2018
We really enjoyed the BBQ last night and woke up to see David on the inhouse TV channel as part of a group doing YMCA on deck. Today our tour took us around Cairns and up to Kuranda Village in the Kuranda Range, which is near the peak of the tropical rain forest.
Called the Wet Tropics, the northeast part of Australia is home to more than 2,200 plant species of which 670 are found nowhere else in the world. The forest is also home to tree kangaroos, unique butterflies, and the country’s heaviest flightless bird, the Southern Cassowary. We took the Skyrail over and through the Barron Gorge National Park, getting a chance to see Barron Gorge Falls actually visible because there has been some rain. This is a 4.7 mile cableway with two stops where you can get off to do boardwalk hikes through part of the rainforest. At the end of the cableway we walked to Kuranda Village, where there were galleries and shops selling aboriginal art, jewelery, etc. Beautiful large fig trees line the main street.
Fun fact: Australian tropical rainforests are the oldest continually surviving rainforests on earth. They once covered all of Australia. Sad fact: Today the rainforest covers only 0.2% of Australia. What remains was added to the World Heritage Site List in 1988.
In the last two days we have experienced two World Heritage Sites—reef and rainforest—pretty cool!
We really enjoyed the BBQ last night and woke up to see David on the inhouse TV channel as part of a group doing YMCA on deck. Today our tour took us around Cairns and up to Kuranda Village in the Kuranda Range, which is near the peak of the tropical rain forest.
Called the Wet Tropics, the northeast part of Australia is home to more than 2,200 plant species of which 670 are found nowhere else in the world. The forest is also home to tree kangaroos, unique butterflies, and the country’s heaviest flightless bird, the Southern Cassowary. We took the Skyrail over and through the Barron Gorge National Park, getting a chance to see Barron Gorge Falls actually visible because there has been some rain. This is a 4.7 mile cableway with two stops where you can get off to do boardwalk hikes through part of the rainforest. At the end of the cableway we walked to Kuranda Village, where there were galleries and shops selling aboriginal art, jewelery, etc. Beautiful large fig trees line the main street.
Fun fact: Australian tropical rainforests are the oldest continually surviving rainforests on earth. They once covered all of Australia. Sad fact: Today the rainforest covers only 0.2% of Australia. What remains was added to the World Heritage Site List in 1988.
In the last two days we have experienced two World Heritage Sites—reef and rainforest—pretty cool!
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