I awoke at 6.45, which was plenty of time to get sorted with lunch and breakfast. I headed to the kitchen after a quick shower, and discovered that the ham was missing, so I was not able to make any lunch rolls, unless I just wanted to have spinnach rolls!
I was ready for pickup for 10 past 8, and then the bus arrived on time at 8.25.
Most of the people going at that time were already on board. There was a couple from Birmingham, the husband having grown up in Motherwell (Scotland), and a Danish family of 4. We picked up another 2 near the airport, with the driver joking that it was the sky dive bus instead of the sky rail bus - to the predictable response of "I don't want to go sky diving!".
We took the scenic railway to Kuranda, which was as described, very scenic. The carriages were all quite old, but the engines were deisel electric. The engines had a design of the carpet snake that made the canyons and valleys in the area according to the dreamland stories of the Aboriginals.
The family from Birmingham chatted with me, I learned that their son was a submariner officer, and that they had been visitting the area quite frequently, this was a trip to see how much it had changed.
We had a 10 minute stop near Kuranda to admire that Barron falls and gorge, the water being the source for a hydro power scheme in the area. The falls were fairly dry at this time, it only just beginning to enter the rainy season for the area.
The last stop for the train was Kuranda station, where we all disembarked and could hop on a shuttle bus to take us to the village center. There was someone set up with his digeriedoo and clapping sticks to try and solicit tourist donations. I managed to get ythe last seat on the bus, where the driver had to tell others that he was full.
I went in to the market place and had a look at the prices to go to the bird sanctuary and koala gardens. There was an option for getting those two plus the butterflies, but I decided to skip the butterflies and focus on the birds and koalas only.
The birds were very bright and colourful, and not very shy, since people were there all the time feeding. One bird hopped on to a guy's head and decided to just stay there for a long time, going up and around the back of his neck, much the the amusement of his young daughter.
I realised that my horse charm and nessie would be likely targets for curiosity so made sure I tucked them in and wandered round the walk way. The person selling the ticket advised that it would take 45 minutes, but I think I ended up spending an hour there, trying to figure out which bird liked what out of the bird food (seeds, fruit, sweetcorn). There were lorikeets, parrots, cockatoos, cossawaries, lack swans, and unexpectly there were also turtles there too.
Next up was the Koala gardens, and I arrived just in time for the photography session, so got in line to hug a koala! I could also get them to take a photo wih my own camera, but only one of my devices, so I gave the camera to the photographer, and asked the person behind me in line to use my phone for me.
That proved to be a wise decision, as despite my having put the camera on automatic, it overexposed the photographs, whereas the phone came out with great shots :)
I headed to the nocturnal animals section next, as I had not really been to any zoo areas so far, despite having been next to a few already. Most people seemed to rush by and overtook me many times in this area, but I took my time and managed to locate where most of the animals were hiding in the dark - most of them were tucked away inside tree trunks or hollow logs, so were hard to spot.
I headed to the Kangaroo section next, realising that there would be some types I hadn't seen yet, and then went past the wombat section where I was rewarded to see a wombat and its young.
I went by the crocodiles for a second time, and realised that these were freshwater crocodiles, unlike the ones I had seen at Proserpine, so took a few photos for posterity, and then noticed that it was almost 2.10, meaning I had to go back to the sky rail station to be able to get back on time for the return bus.
On the sky rail, I was joined by a Chinese person who pretended to be Japanese, initially asking if I spoke Japanese (in Japanese) but confessing he was chinese when I was able to answer without requiring a translation!
He had a drone with him and was using that to get photographs of the rainforests and gorge. The sky rail had two stops, first at the Barron falls (on the other side from the train), and the views of the falls were much better here. I saw a huge reptile here, over a meter long, though I'm not sure what it was exactly.
The second stop was a short rainforest loop, where there were information signs about how the plants compete for sunlight, vines or others, and the kinds of animals that live there too.
The last section of the sky rail afforded great scenes of Cairns airport and the hills leading inland from there, as well as the ocean to the east.
I made it back with a few minutes to spare for catching the bus, and went to the stop, initially not recognising the bus as it was full. since there had been an earlier departure as well as the one I had taken.
We made good time back to Cairns, and I was the first off the bus, saying good bye to the people I had met in the day, and heading in to the hostel. Rosalynda greeted me and asked me to show her the photos of the day, I advised I would get my stuff sorted first. I then decided I should send the photo of me and the koala back straight away as it would get badly bent if I tried to pack it in the rucksack, so located a post office and headed there.
I headed back and made dinner, noticing that my mushrooms had also disappeared, making me wonder if I had left that food bag out the night before causing it to be tidied up. That seemed the most likely scenario, given that I found my spray on oil in the free food section.
I compromised, and used the spinach in place of the mushrooms, to go with the pork strips and green pepper with noodles. The rest of my evening was used to catch up with my Japanese reviews and journal notes, before I headed to bed at around 10pm, remembering tonight to request that the air condition be turned on for the room