The Fellowship of the Ring of Fire, Part 11: Cairns

Our next destination was Cairns, the most popular hub to visit the Great Barrier Reef. I was really excited. Once we arrived, we were very relieved to be in more tropical weather.

Our first excursion was a tour of the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. We stopped along the way at the Wildlife Habitat. It's just a small zoo that has some things I've never seen before like a tree kangaroo. But we also got to pet kangaroos, wallabies, a snake, and a koala.

The tour also included a river tour of Daintree River, the kind of river that you wouldn't want to fall into the water. We saw a large freshhwater crocodile. Our driver also had a boomerang we got to try out on the beach -- stress on the "try" for Stephanie. My attempt however was awesome. It was like an out of control frisbee. It did not return to me, it went way behind me. Another guy on the tour tried it and I almost got killed by a boomerang.

We also visited a nearby town called Kuranda. It is filled with boutique shops all claiming to have rare Australian opals, but also has some nice walking tracks. The best was the track that led to Barron Falls. It was surprising to see it in such a small town, but very pretty.