I was actually looking forward to this tour! As usual, there was pickup transfer arranged by the tour agency which drove us to Kuranda. Kuranda is well known as the Village in Rainforest and is located just 25Km northeast of Cairns.
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Our first stop is at Tjapukai Cultural Park, where we were introduced to a show where performers will perform and demonstrated their culture which gave us insights on the authentic culture and traditions of the locak Djabugay people who had lived in the rainforest around Kuranda for tens of thousands of years.
Exhibition of their cultural pieces and artworks
Talk on the culture
After the show, we walked around the cultural village, learning how they use various of weapons for hunting, how they cook their food and how they make their own medicines. I especially enjoy their bush food and medicine presentation as well as the boomerang and spear throwing!
Cooking their own food:
Bush food and medicine demonstration:
There are vast selection of nuts, fruits and seeds where the man explained how the toxins are removed before consuming, and how they use the bush food for medicinal purposes. They even displayed termite nest where they will grind up and mix with water which can be a medical remedy for diarrhea.
Didgeridoo playing demonstration is one of the most entertaining show to watch and listen. He played various sounds of animals, including kangaroo hopping and wallaby hopping. There is also an explanation and demonstration of how they use boomerangs and spears as weapons for hunting.
They also gave us a demonstration of fire-making which I find it fascinating, and their famous Tjapukai dance performance which gave an insight of their beautiful dances and singing old songs.
With the performers
We had lunch buffet at their restaurant, which coupled with lunch performance to entertain us and I managed to get a taste of their underground cooking of the meat. Somehow, it does not suit my taste very well but the meat is definitely well cooked and chewy.
With the lunch performers
We proceeded on to take the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway to take a cable car to our next destination to explore the rest of Kuranda. We glided way high abover the canopy and enjoying such spectacular views of the rainforest, the Coral Sea and beautiful Cairns Highlands. Such breath-taking view!
As I was typing this post, I still feel such wonders of the beauty that the rainforst provided and I do feel like going back there again! I can see why people flocked to Kuranda. Despite the scorching hot weather, visiting the rainforest midway the cable car ride, we experienced such cooling breeze which feel like we were in an air-conditioned room. Unlike how we feel in Singapore forest, we do not feel warm or humid at all.
We reached our stop and headed straight to Kuranda Koala Gardens without much visiting the Kuranda Heritage Markets along the way as my friend was too excited and eager to see the koala since we did not interact much with the koala yesterday. It was quite a small park with few animals, though the main highlight is the koala.
Eastern Water Dragon
Feed time at wombat area
Wombat
Long nosed Potoroo
Koala!
We also visited the Birdworld Kuranda where we stepped right into the beautiful place which is filled with colorful and beautiful birds flocking around. I saw one little shy bird which the birdkeeper showed me how to stroke the bird without scaring it off. Such soft feathers!
Alast! We were too immersed with the beauty of the wildlife that Kuranda provided that we actually missed the train at the Scenic Railway! We were so disappointed as we were looking forward to the tunnels and looking out for the Barrons Falls. Hence, we had to pay additional AUD $50 just to take a cable car back to where we first started off. The ride back was really a depressing atmosphere where we were quite quiet and down in spirit.
But looking on the bright side, thankfully, we actually stop midway the cable car ride when we first rode and managed to catch a glimpse of the Barrons Falls. 🙂
Surprisingly, we managed to catch the ride from our tour company at the station with other tour groups! We were frantically looking for directions for buses but no avail when we caught sight of the tour staff and asked if we can get a ride to the Freshwater station where we supposed to meet after the missed train ride. Phew!
Next is dinner, where we actually booked a reservation earlier to get a good seat at the second storey to have a nice scenery view of the sunset. But sadly, the trees were blocking but still, it is lovely to dine there.
My friends bought the fish of the day (seasonal), but I couldn’t remember the name of the dish as it was on the separate menu. My friends commented that the fish isn’t that good as compared to the fish dish we ordered the night before at Dundee restaurant. I ordered Youvetsi which is the traditional beef stew baked with kritharaki and kefalograviera. I love beef stew but somemore, their dish is not up to my taste so I ended up not being able to finish it.
Fish of the day
Love this dessert! I think it is like donut balls with sweet syrup.
I shall end my post here for the third day of Cairns!
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You can refer to my past post if you haven’t read:
