Crushed in Cairns

 Sunday marked our return to Cairns.  As I hinted in my previous post, we were very excited for our return.  Let me explain.  The first time we were in Cairns 18 years ago, we were traveling around Australia after Linda's stint on a faculty exchange program.  While in Cairns, we took a day trip to the village of Kuranda including a rail trip up to the village and then the Skyrail back down.   Kuranda had a number of shops featuring aboriginal art and I fell in love with some paintings done on tree bark.  But . . . as this was the start of our journey we didn't really want to schlep pieces of art the rest of the way and we figured that we would certainly find some further along.  Well, you can figure out what happened.  We never saw anything like it again.  I've lived with the regret for years!  So now we'll move forward to 2017 when we first took an Oceania cruise around Australia.  That time, we opted for the ship's excursion to Kuranda when disappointment struck again.  By the time that the excursion got us to Kuranda, all of the shops were closed!  Oh, no!

That brings us to this trip.  Through GetYourGuide, we booked a repeat of our 2004 trip - the train up and the Skyrail back.  We were joined by our friends Pam and Bob.  The train which is over 100 years old travels over 55 bridges, around 98 curves, and through 15 hand carved tunnels.  That makes for an interesting and beautiful ride.

Linda and I always say that we have a weather fairy godmother who travels with us.  The forecast for the day was for thunderstorms and we were greeted by one as we sailed into Cairns.  Going to the train and for most of the ride up, the weather had cleared.  Then, as we approached Barron Falls, a storm hit.

Then, thanks to our weather fairy, the storm cleared by the time we got to the Barron Falls overlook.

From there, it was a short run into Kuranda for our art search.

And now I'll cut right to it - the art shop which I have such a distinct visual image of, is no longer there.  There was no tree bark art to be found, so I will have to live with the regret, perhaps forever!  Oh, well, worse things in life could happen.

All that was left to do in Kuranda was to drown my sorrow in a cold beer.

The Skyrail down is a great ride over the tree tops.

There is a stop along the way to get another view of Barron Falls.

Next, there is a stop where we took a short walk through the rain forest.

After returning to Cairns, we took a walk along the esplanade including the obligatory stop for a cold drink.

Despite the disappointment it was a terrific day.  Now we look forward to a relaxing three days at sea before our next port of Darwin.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry