Cairns and "the village in the rainforest"

Cairns Airport

After stepping off the plane in Cairns and arriving in the beautiful tropical weather we were ready to relax and enjoy the sunshine! But first, we checked into our hostel- called Caravella’s, which reminded me of being in Key West. I believe that the owners are all a Scottish family, and they did a really great job of welcoming us and helping us book all of our tours. I would highly recommend staying at Caravella again. All of my friends traveling (who have been to Cairns already) recommendeded staying at Gilligan’s, which is a massive party hostel located downtown. We chose Caravella because it was right on the esplanade, offered us free meals every night from a local restaurant, and each private room was complete with an ensuite and even a mini fridge! 

Caravella's Hostel on the Esplanade

So after checking in, Arielle and I took advantage of the sunshine and the chance to see the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon before it was closing down for maintenance. The lagoon is one of Cairn’s best known landmarks, and overlooks the Great Barrier Reef and Trinity Inlet and is filled with saltwater from the inlet! Later in the afternoon, we started looking into tours and walked down the main streets of Cairns checking out stores and shops along the way. We decided to spend one day in the Rainforest visiting Kuranda and one on the Great Barrier Reef snorkeling. Here are some pictures of the lagoon:

 

The next morning we were off to Kuranda- known as the “The Village in the Rainforest”. We rode the Skyrail all the way over the Rainforest canopy up to the top, and saw an awesome view of Cairns along the way. The skyrail made a few stops along the way including one at Barron Gorge and Falls Station, which is a famous waterfall and Red Peak Station which is over 1700 feet in elevation, and is the highest point on the cableway in the rainforest.

Skyrail Station

cable cars

riding the Skyrail up to Kuranda

one of the great views along the ride

Kuranda was quite a cool little town and was bustling with tourists just enjoying a day out with their families. It is definitely a hidden gem in the rainforest! Kuranda is located in the middle of World Heritage Rainforest, and has amazing rainforest walks 1000 feet above Cairns! We found out from our trip that the Kuranda lifestyle is very low key and relaxed. All of the locals just seemed to hang around the markets and shops on Coondoo Street (the main street).

Heritage Markets entrance

We checked out all of the markets including the heritage markets which had stalls of locally made arts and crafts as well as a lot of aboriginal artwork and wooden pieces like didgeridoos (instrument) and boomerangs. I even found a crocodile and kangaroo in the same place! Right next to the heritage markets was the butterfly sanctuary, Birdworld, the Koala Gardens, and Australia Venom Museum Here are some pictures from around town:

We stopped for lunch before heading back down to the train station where we started our descent back into Cairns. The Scenic Railway trip on the way home was two hours long and stopped again at Barron Falls, Stoney Creek Falls, and a few other places which had great views of Cairns, the Coral Sea, and the rainforest. It was originally constructed for mine workers in the 1800s- it is an engineering masterpiece actually, and it is amazing to me that they were able to construct it so high up in the rainforest with so few resources.

at the train platform ready to go!

making our way around the bend

After our tours were over we headed back to the Esplanade for one final dinner. Our roommate Tamara was also coincidentally in Cairns as well with her parents for the night so we all decided to meet up for dinner. It was nice to see her parents again as they traveled all the way from Gloucester to see Tamara. We had a great last night and left early the next morning to head back to the Gold Coast. Our trip was short and sweet, I will miss Cairns, but we are so fortunate to have made it to another beautiful part of Australia! 

flatmates!