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Kuranda Forest Here I Come | Cairns Day 2

Looking forward to today! I am visiting the Kuranda rainforest. Most people take the train up into the mountains for the 1.5 hour trip to the town of Kuranda. Unfortunately (extremely) the train was down for maintenance. So instead I bought a round trip ticket on the Skywalk (a gondola). I paid extra to sit in a gondola with a glass floor so I can see the forest beneath me.

I arrived at the skywalk station around 9:45am. My ticket was for 10am. Because I opted for the glass bottom gondola, I had to wait a half hour per the people that work there because the glass bottom gondolas are spread out. There are many more regular gondolas that come more frequently. So I waited 30 minutes but other people showed up. If I wanted to go up the mountain in the glass bottom gondola I would have to share a gondola with others. No thank you. I wanted a gondola by myself. So I decided to go up to the first of 3 stops in a regular gondola.

The first stop was about a 10 minute ride. Amazing views across the land to the Coral Sea. The first stop allowed you to walk through the rainforest a bit on a boardwalk. It was beautiful but I was probably only there for about 10 minutes. It was a short boardwalk. Luckily I was able to catch a glass bottom gondola by myself for the remainder of the trip! It was pretty cool to see the forest from that angle. And I was up super high too! It was amazing to see the land that hadn’t been touched except for the gondola towers and stations. Glad I got my own gondola because I was moving all around snapping pictures. It wasn’t scary being that high up as the gondola was enclosed except for 2 small windows. Plus I downloaded the app that gave an audio tour that was based on where in the forest you were. I think what was most amazing is the Skywalk is owned by a family! They must have serious money to build and support it. Although the tickets are pricey. I paid $141AUD.

The second stop was about 10 minutes away too. The stop was for the waterfall. Wow! It was a really long waterfall! Kinda dry this time of year but because of recent rains it was flowing. I stopped to take pics and had these Japanese tourists take some photos of me.

The next stop would be about 15 minutes further up the mountain. Kuranda is a really cute and small town. Mostly just shops for tourists and restaurants of all kinds. Quite a few art galleries too. I did my share of retail therapy! I bought 2 paintings (small) of aboriginal art. Plus a bunch of soap, a fabulous tote bag and some chocolate from the chocolate shop. Eventually I got hungry and stopped at a Thai restaurant. Had some chicken pad Thai. It was good. At this point it’s about 3pm and I had seen the whole town so I headed back to the gondola for the ride back down the mountain. On my way down, I noticed a piece of my head hair on my arm. I got rid of it out the gondola window. Now my DNA is in the forest! Headed back to the Airbnb to pack and chill until dinner.

I had made a reservation at a highly rated Greek restaurant around the corner from my Airbnb. It lived up to the hype! I had a great table on the balcony of the restaurant and for once I wasn’t in the middle of the room like a fish in a fishbowl. I had lamb souvlaki with a salad and fries. Plus a delicious passion fruit cocktail!

I was spent after dinner (and very stressed about the upcoming Verizon layoff). I must have checked my email every 3 minutes for the dreaded layoff email. My coworker was supposed to message me when the announcement was made but didn’t. Argh. I was also scouring the internet for updates. So I texted my boss. He got back to me an hour later with the good news that I was not laid off. What a huge huge relief!!! How else would I pay for this vacation?! I still didn’t know the fate of my friends but it was after midnight and I had to go bed. Thankfully I could rest in peace! Last night in Cairns! Off to Sydney tomorrow night. Last leg of the adventure!