Photo by Ellie Hipkiss
Brisbane: 23rd August 2010.
Unfortunately, it’s not very practicable for Virgin Blue to copy the Kuranda Scenic Railway, and arrange things so everyone gets a window seat. Especially for the last view of the Great Barrier Reef as we left Cairns. Sadly, my bid for the window seat got rejected as surely as my suggestion for a game of ‘stone, paper, scissors’ to decide who got it.
So, I got relegated to the aisle seat, and Ellie got appointed Official Photographer for this one.
We had a great time, and left with a longer bucket list than when we started. It now contains:
A longer look at Port Douglas and Kuranda.
We still haven’t seen a full-grown crocodile or a cassowary in the wild.
Ride on the Savannahlander
See the rain forest when it’s raining!
And, I’d go out to the Barrier Reef again in a heartbeat; spectacular as it was, we only saw an infinitesimal portion of it.
Finally, if I haven’t mentioned them already, here’s some links to the attractions we used:
Reef Magic Cruises www.reefmagiccruises.com
Foaming Fury (Rain Forest trip and river tubing) www.foamingfury.com.au
Tjapukai www.tjapukai.com.au
Skyrail www.skyrail.com.au
Kuranda www.kuranda.org
Kuranda Scenic Railway www.ksr.com.au
And, a big shout-out to Mike and Suzie, at Cairns Holiday Lodge, where we stayed. Not only did they provide outstanding self-catering accommodation, but we were able to book everything through them. Thanks for everything, folks!
Travelrat's Travels 
Hi Keith,
It’s great that you had such a fantastic time while you were in Australia, and the Cairns accommodation sounds like it was ideal, it makes things so much easier when you can book tours from where you are staying.
By: magsx2 on December 7, 2011
at 10:09 am
I’d love to see a cassowary in the wild too. How amazing would that be? I hope we both get to see one!
By: Selma on December 7, 2011
at 11:02 pm