Kuranda, the little hippie village in the Australian rainforest
On my last free weekend during my volunteering near Cairns I went to Kuranda, a small village with hippie influence near the rainforest. Since it is very close to Cairns and the journey is scenic, the village fills with day trippers in the middle of the day. Many of them book a tour from Cairns including train and cable car, but that costs 117$ and in my opinion that' s way too expensive. Instead, you can take a bus that costs barely $16 and then walk through the village. Although you don't get as high as with the cable car, but from the cable car you also can only see rain forest anyway.
Aboriginee performance at Easter
In the village were a lot of people at that time, because it was the easter time. Some Aborignees were performing a ritual dance and of course they used their didgeridoos, their famous wind instruments.
Huge waterfalls
From Kuranda you can hike to the Barron Falls, which carried a lot of water because of the high rainfall at that time. It is a steeply stepped cascade waterfall and from a platform you can look down on the waterfall from above. I walked a little further to a view point where it is possible to look up to the city Cairns.
Meeting my Koala wife!
Another big attraction in the village are the Koala Gardens, where besides the cute eucalyptus eaters you can see other animals like crocodiles, wombats, bush turkeys or kangaroos. The koalas sat there on their branches like a pothead after dozens of joints. The eucalyptus they eat has a similar anaesthetic effect as marijuana as koalas only eat this plant (and only certain species). The energy and water they consume is very low, so they spend at least 20 hours sleeping.
For barely 20$ you should also take the opportunity to make a picture with a koala, as in some Australian states this is prohibited due to animal protection reasons. I took a nice picture here with my koala lady. We hug each other like in a wedding picture. Still today I miss my koala lady haha!
There are also birds and butterfly parks that you can visit. But I preferred to visit the small hippie market before I took the bus back to my hotel. They have a wide range of crafts and locally made products. At 3 pm they already close like everything else in Kuranda!
