Australia day 23: A jaunt out to Kuranda, 27th October 2009
Sunday, 1. November 2009, 19:19:33
On this day we decided that we'd like to go and check out Kuranda - a touristy village in the hills, with some nice activities around it. To start off with this was a bit of a mission - I wanted to go hire a car, so I went to the place Cousin Rohan had suggested to us the day before - "Cairns Old Car and Ute Hire". The place was cool in that it had older cars for hire, for really cheap prices, and they weren't too anal about little bumps and scratches, because the cars had bumps and scratches already! The car was a nice Ford Saloon automatic, and only cost me £25, all inclusive.
Unfortunately, they didn't have any baby car seats for hire, so I had to find a place that hired out baby stuff. I found one just up the road, but it ended up costing me half as much again as the car did in the first place! Oh well.
The drive up to Kuranda was fun, going up through the mountains on lots of windy roads. When we got there, we parked up, had a little wander around the shops, then went and ate oyr lunch in the park. Nice and chilled!
Next up we visited the butterfly sanctuary (on recommendation of Mark Boulton and family), something that was really worth doing - there were literally thousands of butterflies in a fairly small space, so you constantly had them landing on you and buffeting you. They had some Hercules Moths in there, which are absolutely amazing - they have a wing span of a foot or more! The really mad thing is that they take about 2 years to grow up from egg to Chrysalis, then hatch as a moth ... and then only live for about 10 days.
After a little sit down at the park, we then went on to check out the koala exhibit. Initially I was a but grumpy about having to pay £20 for us all to get in, and then an extra £7 or so for Gabriel to have his picture taken with a koala, but when we got in there, I was actually impressed with the place. It wasn't just Koalas - there were also Wallabies and Kangaroos that you could go right up to and feed, lots of Crocodiles that you could get really close to, lizards, snakes, and more. And the Koala cuddle was really amazing - the staff member brought it out and gave it to Gabriel to hold, we all got to stroke it, and then they took a beautiful picture of Gabriel with the Koala. He was so happy and made up about it that it brought a big smile to my face!
So, here is the weird thing about Kuranda. The town is so centred around tourism that at about 3.30-4pm, literally EVERYTHING shuts down and closes. By 4.05pm it was like a ghosttown, and we were literally the only people on the street. Huh?
So scratch our plans of eating dinner in Kuranda. Instead, we went to have a look at the nearby waterfall and look out points, then drove home. I dropped the hire car off, and we went and had dinner at the Cock and Bull again, as the food is so carnivorlicious!
Unfortunately, they didn't have any baby car seats for hire, so I had to find a place that hired out baby stuff. I found one just up the road, but it ended up costing me half as much again as the car did in the first place! Oh well.
The drive up to Kuranda was fun, going up through the mountains on lots of windy roads. When we got there, we parked up, had a little wander around the shops, then went and ate oyr lunch in the park. Nice and chilled!
Next up we visited the butterfly sanctuary (on recommendation of Mark Boulton and family), something that was really worth doing - there were literally thousands of butterflies in a fairly small space, so you constantly had them landing on you and buffeting you. They had some Hercules Moths in there, which are absolutely amazing - they have a wing span of a foot or more! The really mad thing is that they take about 2 years to grow up from egg to Chrysalis, then hatch as a moth ... and then only live for about 10 days.
After a little sit down at the park, we then went on to check out the koala exhibit. Initially I was a but grumpy about having to pay £20 for us all to get in, and then an extra £7 or so for Gabriel to have his picture taken with a koala, but when we got in there, I was actually impressed with the place. It wasn't just Koalas - there were also Wallabies and Kangaroos that you could go right up to and feed, lots of Crocodiles that you could get really close to, lizards, snakes, and more. And the Koala cuddle was really amazing - the staff member brought it out and gave it to Gabriel to hold, we all got to stroke it, and then they took a beautiful picture of Gabriel with the Koala. He was so happy and made up about it that it brought a big smile to my face!
So, here is the weird thing about Kuranda. The town is so centred around tourism that at about 3.30-4pm, literally EVERYTHING shuts down and closes. By 4.05pm it was like a ghosttown, and we were literally the only people on the street. Huh?
So scratch our plans of eating dinner in Kuranda. Instead, we went to have a look at the nearby waterfall and look out points, then drove home. I dropped the hire car off, and we went and had dinner at the Cock and Bull again, as the food is so carnivorlicious!
WIDGETIZE