After 5 days in Port Douglas, we headed down towards Cairns for another 5 days and stayed at Trinity Beach.
On the coastal road driving down to Cairns. So many vacant, beautiful beaches.
This was the view from our balcony at Trinity Beach. It doesn't get much better than that! :) We spent Christmas day on this beach, and then grilled burgers and ate on our balcony enjoying the view.
The beach and town of Palm Cove, a small touristy town located just north of Trinity Beach. It was quiet and beautiful! You can see the roped off swimming area in the picture, to keep away from marine stringers that occupy the waters during the summer months. This was a really lovely upscale town, with delicious beach cafes and coffee.
We spent a day exploring another part of the Daintree Rainforest and the village of Kuranda. We took a skyrail across 7.5km of the rainforest canopy, which was a nice and relaxing way to view the rainforest from a gondola (no mosquito bites this time!). We stopped at two stations along the way to see scenic look-outs and explore the environment from the forest floor on boardwalks. Here is a picture at one of our stops - it was rainy season, so we were able to see the rushing waters of Barron Falls.
The village of Kuranda had tons of shopping, cafes, and wild life parks. We went to a Butterfly Sanctuary, Birldworld, and Koala Gardens. The Butterfly Sanctuary was pretty boring - not a whole lot to see other than butterflies. Birdworld was a little scary, as birds were just flying around everywhere... Joe even got bit by a parrot! But Koala Gardens was great, we got to see more crocodiles, kangaroos, and of course koalas. I was even able to hold a koala! :) He was cute and cuddly - but also had sharp claws and was surprisingly heavy!
This was in the town of Cairns. Do you see all the tiny dark spots in the picture? Those are hundreds and hundreds of crabs! Overall, we were not that impressed with Cairns. It was the largest city that we visited in Northern Queensland, but we felt like it was run by tourists.
Blue Sky Brewery in Cairns. This ended up being the only brewery on our entire trip that Joe was able to find an IPA.
During this part of our trip, we also went out to the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from that day - it was cold and rainy, and I got extremely seasick. It was an all day event: took about an hour and half to get out to the reef, then we went to 2 different sites to snorkel/scuba dive, and then an hour and a half back to Cairns. But Joe had a fantastic time - it was the highlight of his trip! He got to go scuba diving twice - he saw Nemo, tons of colorful reef fish, giant clams, and even 3 sharks!
On the coastal road driving down to Cairns. So many vacant, beautiful beaches.
This was the view from our balcony at Trinity Beach. It doesn't get much better than that! :) We spent Christmas day on this beach, and then grilled burgers and ate on our balcony enjoying the view.
The beach and town of Palm Cove, a small touristy town located just north of Trinity Beach. It was quiet and beautiful! You can see the roped off swimming area in the picture, to keep away from marine stringers that occupy the waters during the summer months. This was a really lovely upscale town, with delicious beach cafes and coffee.
We spent a day exploring another part of the Daintree Rainforest and the village of Kuranda. We took a skyrail across 7.5km of the rainforest canopy, which was a nice and relaxing way to view the rainforest from a gondola (no mosquito bites this time!). We stopped at two stations along the way to see scenic look-outs and explore the environment from the forest floor on boardwalks. Here is a picture at one of our stops - it was rainy season, so we were able to see the rushing waters of Barron Falls.
The village of Kuranda had tons of shopping, cafes, and wild life parks. We went to a Butterfly Sanctuary, Birldworld, and Koala Gardens. The Butterfly Sanctuary was pretty boring - not a whole lot to see other than butterflies. Birdworld was a little scary, as birds were just flying around everywhere... Joe even got bit by a parrot! But Koala Gardens was great, we got to see more crocodiles, kangaroos, and of course koalas. I was even able to hold a koala! :) He was cute and cuddly - but also had sharp claws and was surprisingly heavy!
This was in the town of Cairns. Do you see all the tiny dark spots in the picture? Those are hundreds and hundreds of crabs! Overall, we were not that impressed with Cairns. It was the largest city that we visited in Northern Queensland, but we felt like it was run by tourists.
Blue Sky Brewery in Cairns. This ended up being the only brewery on our entire trip that Joe was able to find an IPA.
During this part of our trip, we also went out to the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from that day - it was cold and rainy, and I got extremely seasick. It was an all day event: took about an hour and half to get out to the reef, then we went to 2 different sites to snorkel/scuba dive, and then an hour and a half back to Cairns. But Joe had a fantastic time - it was the highlight of his trip! He got to go scuba diving twice - he saw Nemo, tons of colorful reef fish, giant clams, and even 3 sharks!
Daintree rain forest looks beautiful
ReplyDeletetotally jealous that you got to hug a koala