Cairns - Day 4

We decide to head up the mountain to Kuranda today. The brochures advertise it as, “the village in the Rainforest”. The twisty-twirly, super-curvy drive up the mountain leaves Kristen a little grey by the time we get to the village. By the time we start on our 3km hike on the JumRum Jungle Trail Walk she is better. I was a little disappointed with the lack of wildlife…..don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t looking for any reptiles or large furry creatures but I thought there might at least be some birds in this tropical forest (although I’m glad the rest of the animals are nocturnal). We did see a couple of little skinks and Bradley, who was out in front for the entire walk, kept crying wolf and alerting us to non-existent pythons. There was a lot of vines hanging from the canopy and huge nests in some trees…..we found out later that they weren’t actually nests but just the way the ferns grew on the trees…..and incidentally they also happen to be a favourite sunning place for pythons during the day. The little town is packed full of markets and has a high concentration of Aboriginal souvenir shops (since this is the traditional home of the Djabugay people I guess it stands to reason). Steven and Bradley buy a didgeridoo – I knew it was only a matter of time. It comes with instructions and Steven gives it his best shot….by spitting into it.

Bradley, with his natural talent (which his music teacher says doesn’t exist) nails it the first time.

We drive to the Barron Gorge Falls Lookout. I thought it was just a photo opp but it turns out there is more walking involved to get to the lookout. The kids have been go-getters and haven’t complained once about the copious amounts of walking we’ve been doing....and rightly so :) We made sure we were back in time for them to swim before dinner. The weather has been fantastic. The temperatures have averaged 26degrees Celsius, with lots of sun. Yesterday there was quite a breeze – actually that is their winter hardship. Snow for us, cooler breezes for them.

Points to Note:

• There have been commercials on t.v. and signs in the mall for Father’s Day. Jeff thought he might get lucky and have TWO Fathers Days in one year –unfortunately for him and luckily for us it falls on September 3^rd and we’ll already be on our way home.
• The plugs all have an on/off switch. Like the lights you flick the switch DOWN to turn it on and UP to turn it off.
• There seem to be a lot of people up north who walk around in barefeet. Some of them are Aboriginals but we’ve seen Caucasian ladies and kids in the grocery store with no shoes on……and one little dark skinned boy, about 7, walking in barefeet and chewing on his shoe.