Kuranda is a scenic little town in the mountains, known as the Village in the Rainforest, just northwest of Cairns. A lot of artisans were attracted to the area for its natural beauty with waterfalls, mountains and rainforests and decided to settle there. We read that the town had a vibrant arts and crafts culture with a lot of markets and locally handmade items and we were excited to check out the local art.
You take a Skyrail gondola to the village at the top of the mountain, which Jack was really excited about. One thing we’ve learned during this whole trip is that we are fans of more ‘off the beaten path’ type sites that we can do on our own time and not so much the hugely touristy sites or tours that force you into hordes of people and a certain time schedule. Had I known then what I know now about Kuranda, I would have smelled disaster for us a mile away!
We showed up to get our Skyrail tickets that morning and were told we had to schedule a certain time of departure. Not a big deal for the departure because we know we want to leave now, right? However, you must choose your return time as well. The way our plans typically go, who knows when we’ll want to actually come back! You could either take the Skyrail back or the scenic railway. We opted for the scenic railway to mix it up a bit and scheduled a 3:30 return.
The Skyrail trip up was nice and you could see Cairns and the coastline down below. Matt is not a fan of heights and there is a small part of me that enjoys seeing him squirm on one of those things! There were two places you could stop and get off on the way up to the top. The different stops allowed you to take some mini rainforest hikes and get a good vantage point of Barron Falls.
Once we made it to the top, we realized that the “vibrant arts and crafts culture” was in actuality, very commercialized, mass produced and touristy. Not exactly what we were expecting, so we opted to not spend time our time on that since there were a few other things we had planned to check out.
We decided to start with a small hands-on zoo they have there that has Australian animals. We had the opportunity to hold a koala, which I had been really excited about, but I’ll admit that I didn’t feel great about it afterward. The facility seemed small and there were way too many tourists cycling through. I got the feeling that it couldn’t be great for the few koalas they had to be handled quite so much by the general public.
Next, Jack got to feed some kangaroos and wallabies. This part was really fun for Jack and I felt better about it because at least those animals could get away if they’d had enough of the tourists! My issue with this part of the day was the tourists (full grown, adult tourists, mind you) that would come and basically elbow Jack out of the way to feed an animal he was with. Really? Does it make you feel good as a 30-something to be elbowing a kid out of the way? It was kind of unbelievable to see…okay, rant over.
After that we decided to grab a quick lunch (after much handwashing). Jack was not in a great mood at this point. We were all tired, it was hot and I think this little excursion wasn’t exacting what we were thinking it would be. Honestly, I might have thrown in the towel at this point, cut our losses and just left if it wasn’t for the fact that we were basically stuck there until our 3:30 train. I could only hope that at least getting food in everyone’s stomach could hold off any meltdowns for the time being.
After lunch, we headed to a bird sanctuary in town. I’ll admit, this was easily the best part of Kuranda for me and I say that not being a huge bird person (something about them always me think they are plotting an imminent attack). Before you go in, they tell you to take off your earrings because the birds might come down and try to pull them out of your ears – shiny objects! The woman said that awhile back, one lady refused to take out her huge diamond stud earrings and instead had one pulled out by a cockatoo! She didn’t have to tell me twice. Also, they like the little buttons that are on the top of baseball hats, so they’ll swoop down and try to get it off and will end up flying away with your hat instead (um, remember what I said about plotting an attack…seriously they are)! Both Matt and Jack took theirs off just to be safe. They have so many different birds that are indigenous to the area. You don’t feed them or interact with the birds at all. The idea is to just to observe them in their natural habitat.
We hadn’t been in the sanctuary for more than a few minutes, when suddenly, this gorgeous little bird flew up and landed on Matt’s shoulder. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen him so uncomfortable and unsure of what to do in the eighteen years that I’ve known him! The bird kept nibbling at his neck pulling out some of his stubble like a little bird aesthetician hard at work. After a few minutes, both seemed to get used to each other and the little guy just hung out on his shoulder while we walked around. We learned afterward that the bird’s name was Jake and he was apparently quite fond of the tall fellows! It was fun to see how excited Jack got that a bird was just taking a ride on dad’s shoulder. He kept wanting one to land on him, but no such luck. It’s weird that a bird wouldn’t want to land on a loud little boy that is usually running or skipping everywhere, right?
After the bird sanctuary, we had time for a quick trip through the butterfly garden before heading to catch our train. Jack got to see a lot of his favorite butterfly, which is the bright blue Ulysses butterfly. They had so many different colors and types of butterflies. It was amazing to see them all in one place. However, I think Jack’s favorite part of the butterfly garden was a gigantic spider that was NOT part of the exhibit and had built a spectacular web right outside of the restrooms! Definitely the biggest spider we’ve seen thus far.
At this point in the day, it was nearing the time for our train departure so we decided to start walking that direction. Here’s where I’ll get real with you and give you the “behind the scenes” tour of our day.
It was hot.
We were sweaty and gross.
We were tired.
Jack was cranky (okay, we were ALL cranky).
We were sick of tourists, crowds and selfie sticks.
We were ready to be DONE with Kuranda and on the road heading to our next stop.
We’re only a short, scenic train ride away, though, right? Um, not exactly. Turns out that scenic railway ride is almost TWO HOURS on an un-air conditioned train that is packed full of people. And the train would take us back to a parking lot where we’d have to board a bus and be shuttled back to where our car was parked. What?! Jack was a hot mess and I wasn’t far behind him. I would have paid an exorbitant amount for someone to speed that damn train up. Forget the scenery and just get me to the car! There were some pretty sights on the way down, though.
We ended up sitting across from a couple from Melbourne that had a little girl, Bonnie, who was 3. She was a little ball of sunshine and it was pretty much impossible not to smile just watching her. Before we got to any tunnel, she’d shout, “Duck ya heads!!” She pulled Jack out of his funk and had him on the lookout for tunnels so she could “warn” everyone in time. He gave me this knowing look that said, um, I know we can’t possibly hit our heads, but I’ll just play along. To be honest, that was probably the only thing that got us through that train ride without somebody in our family totally losing their shit. So thank you, Bonnie! We survived the ride and at least got some air conditioning in the shuttle bus back to our car.
It was after 5:30 when we got on the road with no idea where we were headed other than south. Time to regroup and get ready for the next adventure…
The Detour Diary 