"We wander for distraction, but
we travel for fulfillment"
I have now been home for just over a month, and I am still writing about my trip in Australia. Its amazing how when you get back into the normal routine it is so easy to forget the little things. I recently got back from a trip to Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, but I am here to talk about my trip to Port Douglas!
My family and I boarded a plane headed for warm sunny weather in Cairns after four rainy days in Sydney. Cairns is one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Australia. The reason for that is the Great Barrier Reef. We flew into the Cairns airport and headed for a smaller town by the name of Port Douglas just an hour north of Cairns. The city of Cairns is more of tourist destination and Port Douglas is a secluded local area. On our drive from the airport we pooled the car over to get a picture with a kangaroo crossing sign at my moms request. We were lucky enough to see some roos hopping around in a field a few kilometers ahead. I still think it would be funny to see some Aussies taking pictures of a deer crossing sign in America.
You sure could feel the difference in the heat as we reached our room in Port Douglas. The heat is more humid in the northeastern part of Australia, pretty comparable to that of Florida. Our hotel was being run by a group of local ladies that were very friendly. They had just taken over the hotel and were making some big changes to the resort. Our hotel was a minute walk from the beach so we spent that first day enjoying the sun on the beach.
The thing I was most excited about doing in Port Douglas or Australia for that matter was seeing the Great Barrier Reef. That next day we took a boat out and snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, which I will cover in the next post.
The day following the reef was the third and final day we departed Port Douglas and made our way towards Cairns. Our itinerary for the day was packed full of fun things to do. We started off stopping by the Daintree Rainforest. The Daintree is the oldest rainforest in the world. It is believed to be over 200 million years old. We didn't have too much time to waste so we just took a short hike around through the rainforest. It was amazing to think how long that had been there.
We departed the Daintree and headed toward the Skyrail, which is considered the World's most beautiful rainforest experience. The Skyrail is about an hour and a half cable ride above another tropical rainforest in Cairns. Along the way there were a couple of stops that had short walks with lookouts. These lookouts had some great views of massive trees, animals and beautiful waterfalls.
When taking the Skyrail you end up at a town by the name of Kuranda. You then have the option of taking the Skyrail back or you can take a train from Kuranda for an hour and then they bus you to the Skyrail parking lot. We opted for the train ride back. They only run two trains a day so we had some time to spend in Kuranda. We stopped in numerous stores and grabbed a bite to eat at a local pizza restaurant which was very good!
After the pizza we headed toward the train station and boarded our train. The Kuranda Scenic Railway was built in 1882 by miners that were unable to get food due to flooding. It was amazing to think how they built this railway that long ago. It included 15 tunnels, 93 curves, and 12 bridges. I had a window seat for the train which made the experience a lot better as the windows were not very large and hard to see out of. The railway was a need experience but not as good as the Skyrail.
We headed back to our hotel in Cairns for the night and had subway to eat for dinner. After dinner we went to the pool then came back and had to start packing all of our items. For my dad and my brother and I it was on to our next destination which was more than exciting, but it was a little depressing because my mom and Rachel were going to be headed back home after just a week in Australia. I didn't even want to think that I only had another week left in Australia.
Fun Fact: The bird pictured above is a Cassowary, which are only found in the northern part of Australia along the coast. They also happen to be the most deadly bird in the world because of their kicks.
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