It rained in the rain forest. Who would have thought.

 March 16, 2016

Cairns main claim to fame is that it is the major access point for the Great Barrier Reef. On our round the world trip in 2009 we took an excursion to the Great Barrier Reef, one of the many highlights of that trip. We decided on this trip to visit a near by rain forest.  The visit was done in a gondola that traveled over the tops of the trees. There was one stop where we changed gondolas and a second stop where we took a short walk to a look out point over the spectacular Barron River Falls.  It did, in fact, rain the entire 60 minutes of our gondola ride. This greatly hindered picture taking because of all the rain on the windows. On the other hand, the ride was enhanced by traveling occasionally through low hanging clouds. At times we could see nothing but the cables disappearing ahead of us into the cloud.  The vegetation was so thick that we seldom saw the ground. We would occasionally get a glimpse of a small stream below us. We saw one bird, a beautiful while cockatoo. We were told that most wildlife in the rain forest only comesut of hiding at night. Despite the weather we thought it a wonderful excursion. 

Our gondola ride ended in the small town of Kuranda. We were assured by our guide that there were excellent shopping opportunities in this town, but with the persipitation still falling, a creperie/bar about 20 yards from our drop off spot looked more appealing. Many of our fellow travelers agreed and we literally took over the restaurant for over an hour and a half enjoying excellent crepes, good drinks and entertaining conversation with our compatriots.

We are back in our suite now, drying out and napping and waiting for the daily late afternoon arrival of our butler with today's assortment of canapes. Unfortunately we once again face two and a half days sailing before arriving in Darwin Thursday afternoon. We will be back then.