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| Golden Penda. Floral Emblem of Cairns |
The trip to Cairns along the beautiful Great Barrier Reef Drive always entails a stop at the Rex Lookout. Every time it looks different depending on the time of day and the weather conditions.
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| Moody Rex |
A trip on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway entails gliding up the Kuranda Range over the rainforest canopy, a stop at Red Peak for a guided walk, a look over Barron Falls (Din Din) and Barron Gorge from the glass Edge Lookout and then the trip down to Kuranda village across the Barron River. At different times of the year, different rainforest trees are flowering and the falls can be a mere trickle or a raging torrent. This day it was a trickle.
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| Up the Kuranda Range on Skyrail |
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| The Rainforest Canopy |
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| Barron Falls, Gorge and River |
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| Skyrail crossng the Barron River |
From the Skyrail terminal, it is a short walk down to the Barron River for a cruise on the Kuranda Riverboat, walking past a flowering umbrella tree and the seed pods on the Euodia (favourite food of the Ulysses butterfly). Welcome swallows ride on the boat, tortoises are fed and freshies 🐊🐊 rest on the bank or a log. No sign of Elvis the resident cassowary though.
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| Cruising the Barron River on the Kuranda Riverboat |
After a snack at the Kuranda Tea Room at the Scenic Railway Station, it is time for the slow ride back down to Smithfield on the vintage train through numerous tunnels.
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| Kuranda Scenic Railway |
My closest and favourite beach is Cape Kimberley which has Snapper Island just 2.5km from the beach. The mouth of the Daintree River is just under 3km along the beach. The drive from Cape Trib Road is about 5km through rainforest.
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| Cape Kimberley Beach |
There has been more action at the proposed Mossman Botanic Garden with plants added to the Garden of Woven Memories. This section is planted with endemic black palm, fibres from which Eastern Kuku Yalanji women use for their beautiful weaving.
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| Garden of Woven Memories |
I have lots of 🐸. Litoria xanthomera (orange-thighed tree frog for obvious reasons) has a two part call,
the last part is a nice little trill. However, it is camera shy and jumps away if you get near to it: it also becomes mute and stops calling. Litoria gracilenta (graceful tree frog) has a persistent loud call and the gracies set up a loud chorus when it is raining. They happily sit there to be photographed and nothing interrupts their calling.
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| Orange-thighed Frog |
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| Graceful Frog Calling |
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