Cairns, Australia

Cairns (pronounced “cans”) is a city of about 130,000 on the Coral Sea. It was also a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. Since we had chosen Airlie Beach for our reef excursion, today we booked the Rainforest Station Experience.

Rainforest Station is a privately owned park in the Kuranda Mountains in the middle of the rain forest. We would get to enjoy a number of experiences here throughout the day.

We got on a bus with about 40 of our new friends for the drive through the town and up into the forest. Carmel was our tour guide and, as a native of Cairns, she was a wealth of information. There are a lot of sugar cane fields here. In fact, Carmel’s father and mother came to Cairns in the 1930s to work the cane fields.

Random road sign.

The drive through the mountains was lovely and soon we reached our destination, Rainforest Station.

Our first scheduled activity was lunch and, since it was about noon, we appreciated it. We had an Aussie style BBQ buffet with all sorts of meats, tropical fruits, and accompaniments. When we finished eating, we were free to head over to the wildlife park.

This private zoo has many native Australian animals on exhibit. We saw kangaroos, wallabies, koala bears, dingos, Tasmanian Devils, a cassowary, crocodiles and reptiles. The kangaroos and wallabies were free wandering. Actually, the kangaroos did less wandering and more sleeping or relaxing. Here are some pictures.

We headed off, then, to listen to some didgeridoo playing and watch a spear throwing demonstration. I have to admit, I do love listening to a didgeridoo. The people leading these demonstrations where members of Aboriginal tribes,

Our next activity required audience participation. We got to learn to throw boomerangs. Our group was evidently very good at it. Brian and I both took part and one of us was much better than the other.

Me:

Brian:

Aboriginal dances were the next program we enjoyed. Accompanied by the didgeridoo and rhythm instruments, three men demonstrated a few dances.

Finally, we had a Duck Boat ride through the rain forest. We were in a 1942 original duck boat much like this one. It had been shipped over from the US during World War II and remained behind.

The rain forest is beautiful with such a variety of plants and animals. It had become very overcast, so the butterflies and other animals would not be out. The colors of the forest were amazing. So many shades of green!

A termite mound.

We even did a little water traveling.

We had a little extra time when we were finished at Rainforest Station, so Carmel decided she would like to take us a little north of Cairns to the beach. We drove out to a place called Pearl Cove which is a very nice local area. There were lots of restaurants and shops along with a lovely beach. Notice the white flotation boundaries around the swimming area. That netting keeps the jellyfish out.

On our return back to the ship, we passed a couple of fields of wallabies. When a new housing area was developed, some wallabies were trapped inside the fences and they have flourished. Not everyone is happy about this because wallabies love vegetable gardens!

We made it back to the ship right on time at 5:00. We relaxed with some adult beverages, had pizza and French fries for dinner and called it a night. It was dark when we left Cairns and all the lights where gorgeous, especially those on the boats.

We’re now on the second of three sea days before we get to Darwin. As of today, it is going to be very rainy there and very warm at the same time. We have no plans except, possibly, to run a few errands and do some exploring as weather permits.