Having booked this trip fairly late on last night we were surprised that we could get a hotel pickup the next morning to the Skyway. Bleary eyes we managed to get ready in time for the 9:45 pickup. A short trip across town and we arrived at the skyway. As with any tourist attraction we’ve been to it worked like a well oiled machine and we were soon standing ready to board the Skyrail Cablecar up to Kuranda.
It was a near experience certainly trying to time getting a pushchair into the cable car as well as the baby and associated belongings before it was headed up the hill, but we seemed to manage it ok.
The skyway is made up of three sections and disappears from view very quickly up the hill. The sights were amazing. Such a vast stretch of rainforest with only a glimpse of civilisation in the distance.
Once we reached the top it was time to explore the town of Kuranda. This was a little bit of a disappointment as it was basically just a large tourist market with tat everywhere. We did manage to find a crepe restaurant hidden away in the older part of town for lunch which was very tasty, thanks lovely planet.
A bit of a further wonder, finding a lizard and an old aeroplane we headed back to the station, but this time to take the train back.
The scenic railway was built to connect Cairns with Kuranda and was quite a challenging feat of engineering. We found our seats in one of the very old fashioned looking carriages for the journey back. The train makes one stop along the way at Barron Falls, which gave us a stunning view of the falls from the other side of the gorge.
The train also passes over a bridge which is pretty stunning.
The train took us back into Cairns central station. We had a bit of a wonder around, bought some things for breakfast and headed back towards the apartment. On the way we got hungry and stopped to eat at a Turkish restaurant which was very tasty.
While eating we spotted across the road they had a stage setup and it looked like an act was about to perform. Naturally I was quite interested to see what was going on so after we finished dinner we went over to take a look. It turns out we manage to catch the end of the Cairns festival and enjoyed a performance from a local artist.
Having enjoyed a rather impromptu music session, we walked back to the apartment. We fancied a quick dip in the hotel pool so we wheeled a sleeping Toby to the poolside and had a quick dip. Of course he woke up in the middle, but all fine!
