Kuranda

We had the BEST day today!!  The weather cleared up so we drove to Kuranda, a small town on top of a rainforest covered mountain.  Absolutely gorgeous.

While there we visited their Butterfly Sanctuary which was great.  It included a tour of the facility, showing butterflies in all their stages from egg to caterpillar to butterflies newly emerged from their chrysalis.  Fantastic.  There were loads of butterflies flitting around.  Absolutely beautiful.

From there we had a picnic in the park and then headed to the Kuranda markets for a short visit.  They even have dinosaurs there!

Then it was off to the Scenic Railway down the mountain.  What a ride!  Beautiful views from a railway cut into the edge of an extraordinarily steep mountain by men with hand picks and shovels.  This included 15 tunnels, one of them over 400m long.  An incredible feat of engineering and some spectacular views.

The railway also stops at Barron Falls which are beautiful.

Once at the bottom of the mountain, a shuttle bus took us to the start of the Skyrail.  We were a bit nervous at the start...

Especially when it headed out over the canopy of the rainforest...

But we then relaxed into it and enjoyed the ride and the views from the rainforest canopy to Cairns.  It was quite spectacular.

It was a big day...