Friday March 24th

 A full day. We were picked up at our hotel and taken to the Freshwater station of the Kuranda scenic railway,. We rode up through the rain forest for 23.5 miles. We stopped along the way to snap a picture of Baron Falls.

Barron Falls

Once at the top we were in Kuranda, a small village of 3000. We wandered the street, the heritage markets and had a coffee.

We were scheduled to visit the Rain Nature Forestation. Our first activity was to ride a "Duck" for a trip through the jungle. Our guide told us about the plants. One of the palms had one way thorns on its vines and on the stem of the fronds. They were very sharp and could produce bad cuts. The local area, a national preserve is the oldest continuous rainforest in the world. We found it interesting that it could take 30 years for a fan palm to grow 4 inches high.

Fan palm

Following our ride, we enjoyed a BBQ, followed by a demo of a digeruroo and some local dancing by the Pamagirti Aborignies.  At the end, volunteers could learn a dance. Of course, Dennis volunteered. I did get a video, but had problems downloading it on the blog.

Dennis in the white shirt

Then we learned about spear throwing and had boomerang lessons. We each had an opportunity to give it a throw. 

Lastly we visited a small Koala & Wildlife park.  I was able to sign up to hold a Koala. This was on my " must do" Australia list.

Wallabies

Dingoes 

Our trip back down to the shore was on a sky tram. The gondolas floated above the flora. Amazing!