NORTH QLD ADVENTURE - DAY 18 – UP TO KURANDA TO SEE BUTTERFLIES AND BIRDS…

We had a bit of a later start to the day today as we wanted to head back up to Kuranda and the things we wanted to go and visit weren’t opening until 10am.

 It was actually good to be able to have a bit of a sleep in and then a leisurely breakfast before we took off.

 The drive up the range is lovely, a much clearer day today so the views were much better than the previous day when we drove us here…

One of the attractions we wanted to visit again this trip was the butterfly sanctuary in Kuranda.  It was one of my favourites from our last trip up here.  Kuranda is normally buzzing with tourists, people everywhere but not so today.  It was very evident to see the damage that COVID has done to the economy up here as there was hardly anyone about at all.  It is so sad to see.

We found a good park under a shady tree and it was around 10.30am by the time we arrived at the Santuary.  Admission is normally $20 per person, but with our Senior’s discount it cost us $16 each which is pretty good value.

This Butterfly Sanctuary is the largest butterfly flight aviary and exhibit in the Southern Hemisphere, and is home to over 1500 butterflies from a variety of species.

The aviary at the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary has been designed to recreate the butterfly's natural tropical habitat.   The tranquility of the flowing fresh water streams, complete with waterfalls and surrounded by exotic tropical plants and flowers is the perfect natural haven for the spectacular butterflies.

 

The Australian Butterfly Sanctuary is also home to the world’s largest moth – the Hercules Moth. The Hercules Moth is endemic to Tropical North Queensland Australia and is a majestic creature of the jungle that really has to be seen to be believed! The Australian Butterfly Sanctuary is an all weather activity, perfect for rainy days typical of the tropics.

 

We enjoyed our time here, with the butterflies fluttering to and fro and landing on us.  It was difficult to take photos often as they move so quickly and so unpredictably but just sitting and watching them was fascinating.  I personally was a little disappointed that we didn’t see any Ulysses butterflies in there this trip or any of the fragile Cairn’s butterflies as these two types would be my absolute favourites.  Still we have seen quite a few Ulysses butterlies in the wild up here so I guess I will just have to be content with that.  No opportunities to photograph them though like we did last time…

We spent a good two hours in the butterfly aviary before leaving to go and walk down through the Kuranda Markets to Bird World.

It was also a little disappointing that the Kuranda markets were not operating at the moment either well not daily all due to COVID, so other than a couple of little café’s there was not much exploring to do here either..

Entrance to birdworld, was also relatively reasonable in cost also.  Normal price is $19 per person but with our senior’s discount it cost us $15 each. As we paid to enter, we were advised to remove all our jewellery including our watches and put them in our back packs at the birds are really attracted to these items and will annoy us or damage them if we leave them on.

Birdworld Kuranda was designed and built in 1995 in Kuranda, designed to showcase birds in their natural environments without cages, creating a truly interactive and pleasant experience for everyone.

Birdworld, is also one of the largest free-flight aviaries in Australia. Housing the largest number of co-habiting bird species anywhere in the world.  More than 500 birds from around the globe live at the sanctuary, and among these are 75 different species of the most spectacular birds, 56 of which are native, living in the safe enclosure, including vibrantly coloured parrots, inquisitive lorikeets and the large elusive cassowary.

All birds in the sanctuary fly freely, and hand-feeding is also permitted, with many of the rainforest birds being friendly and eager to receive a snack! Birdworld Kuranda also provides bird food for purchase when visitors arrive. All birds have had regular contact with humans, and as a result are very tame.

A tumbling waterfall connects the two lakes that play home to waterbirds such as herons, stilts, ducks, kingfishers, and the unique Australian Black Swan. We walked along the birdlife, and had numerous birds land on us.  The beautiful young macaw was particularly interested in Steve’s back pack and kept wanting to chew at his clips and zips.  It was a good thing we had taken our jewellery off..

 

 As we left Birdworld we noticed a sign in the Market place talking about a Plane Wreck, and after asking someone found out that it’s home was just outside the Markets.

One of the  more interesting finds we found up in Kuranda was what appears to be a crash site of an old plane in the rainforest.

We wondered whether it had actually crashed there so if it had been placed there.  It turns our that this plane called Geronimo,a US Air Force plane that began service in 1942 before being used as a passenger airline for Trans-Australia Airlines (a part of Qantas) in 1946 under the name Cunningham. It was then used in the movie ‘Sky pirates’ and went under the name Miss Fortune in 1984, the plot of the movie having the plane crash on the Barrier Reef. After the film the shell of the craft was given to the town.

It is well set up in a rainforest setting and it does look as if it could have been a crash.  We gave it a good explore, took a few photos and as it just after 2 pm we left as we were both feeling pretty hungry. 

We decided to go check out the pub nearest the Kuranda Skyrail and Railway station.  Unfortunately, it was closed.  We were later to find out that, that particular hotel really caters for the tourist trade and since the number of tourists have dropped dramatically since Covid they haven’t reopened.  We then tried the other pub only to find out that they were no longer serving meals. 

It was back into the car and back to the main little shopping area of Kuranda where we found a few cafés still open although most seemed to be packing up for the day.  

We parked the car back where we were previously and walked straight across the road and Steve spied the Butterfly Shop. The Butterfly Shop is a unique and stylish boutique located in the heart of Kuranda Village.  It also has its own licensed cafe offering lunch, drinks, dessert, ice-cream, coffee and more.    Steve also spied their ice creams.  They also looked like they might be packing up for the day as all their table and chairs had been bought inside.  Steve asked them how long they were going to remain open as he really wanted to get one of their rum and raisin ice creams after we had had some lunch.    The owner informed us that he could also do lunch for us still, so we had a look at his menu and chose to have a Chicken and Camembert filo with salad.  

   

He was a lovely guy, went back into his shop and got a table and a couple of chairs and re set them up on the footpath for us.  Not only did he set up a space for us to eat our lunch but he went and got a couple of fresh yellow roses in a vase to put on our table as well… So nice and made us feel quite special.  The meals were very reasonable… all up two meals, and two drinks and we were only out of pocket for about $22. 

He chatted to us for a while also… we mentioned how dead the town seemed today in comparison to when we last visited and  he let us know just how tough the businesses were doing it up there as nearly all of their income comes from a vibrant tourist trade which had almost ceased since COVID..

We finished our lunch off by ordering a double rum and raisin ice-cream.  Steve was up for one the moment he stopped and saw them in ice cream fridge.  This batch of ice-cream was thick with raisins, on a par with the one from Paronella Park that we had on our past visit…

Once our tummies were satisfied, we took a drive out to the lookout over Baron Falls.  It was only about 6kms out of Kuranda, but it was a real disappointment as the trees had grown up and the views of the falls were not that great and certainly not good enough to photograph.  You could see the rain platform below quite clearly though.

From here we headed back down the mountain into Cairns, only stopping at the Lookout on the way down.  We set the Navi to take us to Crystal Cascades.  Kathy had mentioned that we could also do the drive up to Lake Morris from here, but I think she must have been mistaken because no road from here led to Lake Morris..

Crystal Cascades is one of the secrets of Cairns and Tropical North Queensland that locals wish they could hide from visitors. 

It is a secluded freshwater swimming hole, hidden in a wonderfully cool tropical rainforest.  A series of small waterfalls flow into large pools surrounded by large impressive granite boulders.  Rainforest trees hang over the mountain water, keeping it cool and refreshing. There are also council managed and cleaned BBQ and picnic tables in the area with a toilet/change room block close-by.

We had discovered this little treasure the last time we were in Cairns but because of the time of day we visited last time, it was too late for us to do the full walk.  This time we planned to do it…

Although the walk was mostly up hill it was a pretty easy walk as it was pretty much up a bitumen road way.  This really is a lovely spot… There were heaps of school kids down here swimming in the many waterholes this afternoon.  We also noticed a lot of locals use this track for their afternoon walks. 

We spent a couple of hours here, going up and down each set off staircases down onto the boulders along the way.  The Cascade at the end of the walk did not disappoint… We are so glad we made the effort to visit…

It was after sunset by the time we got back to the car so definitely too late to try and visit Lake Morris today.

On our way home we stopped in to pick up a few groceries from one of the supermarkets and whilst we were there, we noticed a Domino’s store.  Being the time of evening it was, both Steve and I felt pretty exhausted from being out in the sun all day so we decided to pick up a pizza for dinner instead.

Again, it was another big day out with us arriving home after 7pm.  We were totally whacked this evening after two big days out.  So tired that we couldn’t function too well to do anything other than watch a bit of TV and crawl into bed.