I visited Cairns & Gold Coast, Australia in mid-March. This report focuses on the activities we enjoyed in Cairns, a tourist city surrounded by great nature.
Along the beach at Palm Cove, there are many resort hotels and a small shopping mall. It had the atmosphere of a relaxing adult resort. I only had breakfast this time, but I enjoyed my first meal in Australia, thinking that it would be nice to stay here for a few days to relax.
Palm Cove is a small resort about 30 minutes north of Cairns by car. This is where I headed immediately after leaving my luggage at the hotel on the morning of my arrival in Cairns. I visited the restaurant “ChillPORT@FINO” for breakfast. It seems to be a popular restaurant among the locals, and the restaurant was crowded with many Aussies in the morning.
The butterfly on Keaapi’s head is the Ulysses Butterfly, one of the fastest butterflies in the world, which is said to fly at 40 km/h. It is said to make you happy if you see it three times a day. We were told that it can be seen in the rainforest near Cairns, so our next stop was the rainforest.
Here is the official mascot of the Cairns Tourism Board, “Careappi”. The motif is a sea turtle, the symbol of Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. This is because the Great Barrier Reef is home to six of the seven species of sea turtles that inhabit the earth. Keaapi was chosen from among the creations of more than 300 students studying design.
Aerial walk over a tropical rainforest unchanged since time immemorial
Two World Heritage Sites, the Great Barrier Reef and the Tropical Rainforest, are the highlights of Cairns. The Great Barrier Reef is well known as the world’s largest coral reef group, but many people may ask, “What is a World Heritage site like the rainforest? I guess there are many people who wonder, “What is a World Heritage site called a rainforest? In fact, I didn’t know about it until I went there this time, but when I visited there, I found it to be an amazing place.
One of the popular activities in Cairns is to go to Kuranda, a small town surrounded by the rainforest. This time, we took a ropeway called Skyrail to get there. There are two stations along the way, and we had to get off the gondola to change trains. At the first station, Red Peak Station, we joined a guided tour by a ranger. Mike, who spoke a little Japanese on this day, led us on a 15-minute boardwalk while we listened to birds chirping.
This rainforest in the northwestern part of Cairns is said to be the “world’s oldest forest,” a miraculous place where 130 million-year-old plants live almost intact. The rainforest is said to be “the oldest forest in the world.” Looking up at the trees, you can see that they are covered with a variety of trees, and the area where we are is so dense that almost no sunlight reaches the ground.
According to Mike, this is a forest where plants and animals have survived and evolved over millions of years through a unique and mind-boggling struggle for survival. Take, for example, the “clamp-killing fig. Fig seeds carried by bird droppings germinated near the branches of the original tree, and grew as roots drooped down. Eventually, they strangle the main tree to death. Strangling is a word that can be found at …….
It was funny how the ranger, Mike, repeatedly explained in his one-word Japanese, “shimekoroshinoichijiku,” (amazing life force.) I couldn’t help but be impressed by his words! I couldn’t help but be impressed (this is the oldest forest in the world, where only the species that have survived in this way are still evolving).
It is not only the plants that are amazing. Here lives the “hikuidori,” the dinosaur bird of the rainforest. With large feet and long, sharp claws at the tips of its fingers, it looks like a dinosaur. We didn’t get to see one, but if you are lucky, you may be able to catch a glimpse of one.
We will board the gondola again. The view of the tropical rainforest from this section of the gondola was very impressive! The dark green forest with vegetation I had never seen before stretched on forever, and it really looked like it could be inhabited by dinosaurs. The huge broccoli-like tree seen along the way is said to be the model for the “tree” in the movie “Avatar” or not (not sure).
When riding the Skyrail, if you download the commentary app to your smartphone, you can listen to the audio guide in Japanese inside the gondola for a better understanding of the ride! Recommended.
A five-minute walk from the second station, Barron Falls Station, brings you to the observation deck where you can see the impressive waterfall. It was the rainy season, and there had been heavy rains a couple of days before, so Barron Falls was in a terrible state of disarray! Almost everyone around us was taking video with their smart phones.
We arrived at our destination, Kuranda Station, about 10 minutes from Barron Falls Station. Just before we arrived, the flash of the camera installed in the station building will light up and there will be a photo shoot. As is typical of tourist attractions, why not take a souvenir photo (for a fee) to take home as a memory? You can also download a digital version later.
It is a short walk from Kuranda Station to the town of Kuranda. It is a small town, but it is lined with unique stores selling handicrafts and accessories. In addition to the Skyrail introduced here, Kuranda is also accessible by Kuranda Sightseeing Railway. The views are completely different, so it is a good idea to combine the two on your way to and from Kuranda. It seems to be common to join a tour from Cairns to Kuranda.
© Source travel watch
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