Kuranda and Tjapukai Community

Welcome to the rain forest! On Easter Sunday I met my parents in Cairns, Australia. This city is in the northeastern part of Australia and is right next to the Great Barrier Reef.

The first place we visited in this area was Kuranda, which is a mountain village. We had planned to get to Kuranda by taking the Kuranda Railway there and the skyrail back. Unfortunately, about a week before our trip, there was a landslide and the train derailed. Needless to say, the train was still out of order, so we used the skyrail both ways.

Barron River

It rained on and off throughout our day in Kuranda and there was a lot of fog.

Mom and Dad on the skyrail

The plants were really interesting here. There were a lot of ferns, and many of them grew way up inside the trees.


View of Barron Gorge


This is Barron Falls. The water level at Barron River was really high when we visited. Even though it's a rain forest, the area had received more rain than average, so the water was very muddy.


Another shot of Barron Falls



The actual village of Kuranda was filled with all kinds of shops. Most of them were souvenir shops with boomerangs and didgeridoos in addition to the regular t-shirts. I found this in one of the shops and couldn't believe you can actually buy one.


After seeing Kuranda, we went to the Tjupukai (don't ask me how to pronounce it--I still can't) Aboriginal Cultural Park. They danced and showed us how to play the didgeridoo, throw spears and boomerangs, and talked about bush foods their people ate from the rain forest.


The Tjupukai dancers


They picked three people from the audience to come up and dance with them on stage.
Lucky me.

I will post more pics of my time in Queensland soon!