Cairns is well into the tropics in northeast Australia (Queensland), and man, it was HOT. The town itself (sorry, Cairns) is a bit of a dump, with a crocodile-infested muddy waterfront and not much of a city to see. However, it’s just a few miles from the Great Barrier Reef, a short train ride to Kuranda, and has the Ochre restaurant, where you can munch on Kangaroo, Wallaby, crocodile…
Kuranda is a bit tacky (it was a hippy retreat in the 60’s, now more of a souvenir-gathering retreat) but offered an interesting opportunity to walk through a tropical rainforest on the Atherton Tablelands. We took an old-timey train up there, and a gondola over the forest canopy home.
Other interesting notes from Cairns:
– The biggest beetle I’ve ever seen outside our hotel
– Swarms of “flying foxes” (a bat by anyother name) every evening
– XXXX Bitter (brewed in Brisbane) is much better than the name would lead you to believe…delicious, even!
– To make up for the gross (and dangerous) beach, they have a beautiful park with BBQ pits and a nice poolÂ
See the pictures here