As we flew into Cairns in NE Australia, from the air it felt like we were arriving back in the Hawaiian island of Kauai. It was definitely warm enough to be Hawaii. We spent a few days in this area and enjoyed a few day trips.
First off though was jumping right into learning to drive on the left side of the road. A bit unnerving after an overnight flight leaving us less than rested, but we made it safely around that first day. My biggest issue was staying centered in the lane as I tended to drive to the left side.
On our drive up the coast to our first excursion, we enjoyed a few stops along the way, confirming what we saw from the air: it felt a bit like Hawaii and a bit like Costa Rica.
Mossman Gorge (Daintree Forest)
Mossman Gorge is located on the south side of the Daintree National Forest which is an old tropical rainforest. The gorge has a a few rivers and creeks joining together and definitely has that rainforest feel. The area is home to the large flightless Cassowary bird which looks a bit like a dinosaur. They are one of those animals that would be fun to see from a distance. No sightings on this hike.
A bit different from other rainforest we have been to, this one had the occasional large boulder sitting in the woods. Reminded us of hikes in Ontario. Julia commented “It’s like Algonquin Park met Costa Rica.”
Something that is not in Ontario woods are trees that send out these massive runners to start new trees. We saw a few of them but the longest was the one in the video that started on the other side of the creek and then crossed the path and set off into the woods.
The Great Barrier Reef
One of our main reasons to visit this area was to see and experience the reef. With forecasts of rain, we were thankful the rain held off and we had a great day, but with a bit more excitement than we bargained for. We started off doing a tour in a small glass-bottom boat while others started snorkeling. One of those individuals snorkeling had a medical emergency and passed out in the water. Thankfully the buddy system and the watchman on the boat both did their job and a small boat was launched and the individual was rescued and eventually resuscitated. The coast guard helicopter was dispatched and the individual airlifted off the boat. By the end, he was sitting up and looking better which made the helicopter exciting to watch (vs unnerving if he was not doing well).
We were setup in the back of the boat to see the helicopter come in, but Coast Guard asked the crew to get everyone under cover to protect us from the rotor downwash so we couldn’t get the picture or videos we wanted. However, what was paramount was the individual and the crew and the coast guard were super professional. A life was saved that day and it was a our honour to witness it.
Because of that, we had a bit of a late start, but it was worth the wait. We had about one hour of snorkeling and than shifted to a different location for more snorkeling. The reef was beautiful but not as vibrant as we had thought. We learned that is in part because the brochures and such are often photoshopped or use special lighting to make things brighter than you can see on your own. The other reason is that in 2017-2018, there was an exceptionally warm summer in the area and a lot of the reef bleached. However, they say that does happen occasionally and the reef recovers and it is coming back. That being said, it looked better in person and it is hard to capture on film. Add to that the fact that I’m definitely NOT Jacques Cousteau and found trying to swim with one hand in waves and current and trying to watch fish and a camera at the same time is a skill that doesn’t come naturally. So apologies for the quality of videos. I tried to include only the least shaky parts.
Pretty beautiful above the water too!
The edge of the reef had schools of fish and large fish. Moving into the reef you saw fewer and smaller fish but saw other things like starfish and giant clams!
Lots of unique coral and sea anemones.
Lots of varieties of fish.
And the shallows had sea grass and a sea turtle! Amazing to get so close.
We also saw some clown fish in an anemone. The clown fish are so small and stay hidden, and there were about 2 metres under water, so it was difficult to get a good video or picture.
Kuranda Village
It did end up raining over the weekend and our next scheduled excursion was on Monday to Kuranda Village which is a mountain village just outside of Cairns. It can be accessed by the Kuranda Scenic Railway and the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. We had tickets to do both, but received an email in the morning that due to 250mm of rain in the last 24 hours (almost 10 inches), there had been a mudslide onto the tracks and the train was closed. They said we could do the gondola up and down instead. Upon arriving, we found out that the power wasn’t restored in the village yet so the gondola was delayed. We had the option of cancelling, but this was our last day in Cairns so it was a now or never moment. In the end, we didn’t get to experience the train or the koala park up in the village due to the storm, but we still got to do the gondola and see the Barron Falls on the way up to the village.
It had mostly stopped raining when we boarded, but yeah, they got a lot of rain!
The view of Barron Falls from one of the gondola rides. Needless to say, due to the rain the falls were surging way more than normal. The picture to the right is actually in the Cairns airport and we took it the following day on our way out of town and it shows the falls at more normal levels.
The video is a little bit distorted because the camera had a hard time ignoring the droplets on the glass, but it gives you an idea of how powerful it was and the force of the water. It was a bit unique in that it cascaded down more of a 45 degree rock face vs off a cliff.
The view from the overlook at the top.
The falls created their own mist clouds and it was interesting to see the rainforest from above as it gave you a different perspective being able to look down.
We walked around the village a bit though over half of the stores were still closed due to the storm. We also tried to go down one of the hiking trails in the village and could only get part way down the trail until we were blocked by a raging creek that had covered the stone crossing. We did see an Australian wild turkey and a massive spider though.
So all in all, it was one of those ‘glad we did it, but disappointed we couldn’t do it all’ type of days. If we are ever in the area again some day, we would give it another go.