Chilin' in Cairns

I'm sitting here in the teeny little internet room at the YHA hostel in Cairns, enjoying a few moments of peace and quiet. So here's the latest update:

Mom, Dad and I arrived here late last night, in the pouring rain! I'm talking bucketing, sheeting, pissing rain. We couldn't see the tarmac of the airport until the plane actually touched down (a little harder than my liking, too, I'd like to add!). The Cairns airport is pretty small and we had to exit the plane down these open stairs! I was so worried that Mom would slip and fall, but she did ok. By the time we got into the terminal building we were all soaked. And so was our luggage, when we picked it up from the carousel!

I hailed us a taxi and we hied off to the YHA, where we are now. This is a pretty nice hostel. It's built somewhat like the one at Monkey Mia, where all the rooms open onto a central courtyard. There's a pool and hot tub in the courtyard, as well as lots of tables and chairs and all sorts of lush tropical greenery. Pretty sweet! Mom and Dad have their own room, I'm in a dorm.

We got here about 10:30pm last night so basically we went straight to bed, after raiding the "free food" cupboard for some tea and lemon! Early this morning Dad and I walked across the road to the grocery store and stocked up on some supplies to keep us going for the next few days. Then after breakfast, he and Mom cleaned up and made lunches, while I went off to book tours.

The next three days are likely going to be some of the most expensive of this entire trip, but well worth it! Today we took the Sky Rail cable cars up the mountains to Kuranda, a village high in the rainforest. It was so beautiful! This was my first time seeing actual, tropical rainforest, and it was great. There were huge trees, vines everywhere, strange bird calls, beautiful waterfalls, and all the other sights, sounds and smells you'd associate with the forest. I loved the huge variety of epiphytes growing off the trees. I took some pictures of basket ferns that looked like they'd just taken over the trunk of one of the trees. The weather today was cloudy but not rainy, and there were lots of rainforest butterflies, including the stunning Ulysses butterfly, flittering about.

The cable car ascended into the rainforest in three stages. At the first changeover, we walked a short boardwalk through the rainforest that explained a little bit of basic rainforest ecology. Dad remarked that the information signs could've been written for Tofino on Canada's west coast, and he's right - in some ways, a rainforest is a rainforest no matter where it is. But man, we are sure in the tropics here! The humidity was very high and the plants were out of this world. At the second stop on the cable car, we got out to admire the raging Barron River and Barron Falls. There's been so much rain here in recent weeks that the waterfall, which is huge on a normal day, was an absolute torrent. Local Aboriginal lore says that this waterfall is one of the resting places of the Rainbow Serpent... and at one point while we were at the falls, the sun peeked through the clouds and a beautiful rainbow formed over the gorge. Very cool.

One last cable car ride and we were at Kuranda! The village is very much a tourist trap and we enjoyed it immensely. We didn't go to the koala sanctuary, the butterfly gardens or the aviary, but we did wander the streets and do some pretty serious shopping. Mom, being a music teacher, has been in the market for a didgeridoo pretty much since arriving in OZ. Well today she finally bought one. The lady in the shop where we purchased it was very helpful and showed us how to play it. Turns out I have the "right mouth" (her words, not mine!) for playing the didgeridoo! Ha ha! The lady wrapped the thing up so tightly I don't think we'll ever get it out of the packaging, and it's gonna be an interesting adventure passing it through airports for the next few weeks, but Mom now owns a didgeridoo.

We rode the cable car back down the mountains again (it's a loooong ride, about 45 minutes all told) and took the shuttle bus back to the hostel. Mom was wiped so we sent her off to rest while Dad and I did some exploring to find a restaurant for dinner. In the end we ate at a little Mexican place which was quite nice. However, I'm really beginning to think I've gotta just lay off the Mexican permanently - I must admit I've not been feeling all that well since dinner, and this is not the first time that Mexican food has affected me this way. Groan...

Dad and I tried out the hot tub when we got back to the hostel. Wait... did I say hot tub? Let's make that COLD tub! With bubbles! No heated water here. Dad seemed to quite enjoy the water's temperature but me, not so much. Ah well. The bubbles, at least, felt good!

And now I'm off to bed. We're booked on a reef tour tomorrow (AT LAST!) and need to be ready to go for 7am, so I've gotta get some sleep. Wish us luck - we've all been recommended to take sea-sickness pills before we go, 'cause the water will be choppy. Not so sure this is a good idea after a bit of a questionable dinner...