I had planned out our four days in Cairns as 3 days of tours, and the last day for general walking around town. This was to be our real sightseeing part of the vacation.
Day 1 was a trip to Kuranda. A 7.5 km cable skytrain takes you over the rainforest into a small village. Return was a 2-hour train ride back on the Kuranda Scenic Railway. The dense rainforest views from the top via the cable car and then all around on the train ride back were simply amazing. In Kuranda, we went to the Butterfly Sanctuary and the Zoo. For Abhishek, the highlight was holding a butterfly and touching a kangaroo. We saw kaolas sleeping and some crocodiles.
Day 2 was a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We took a catarmaran out to a pontoon 50 kms into the sea. The 90—minute ride was tough – the waters were very choppy and the high winds added to the discomfort. We were all feeling extremely seasick by the time we reached. It took an hour or so for us to start feeling normal again.
Abhishek and I weren’t up for snorkeling and scuba diving, even as Bhavana did both. All three of us went on both a semi-submersible and a glass-bottomed boat through which we got a good look at the coral reef. As Bhavana was out in the water, Abhishek and I ‘suntanned’ on the upper deck of the pontoon . The ride back, thanks to the low tide, was very comfortable.
