A sunny week in Cairns Part 2

Off to Kuranda on the SkyRail http://www.skyrail.com.au/

On the Sunday before the conference, we decided to head off to Kuranda on the SkyRail - this is a cable car which skims the rainforest canopy... And very pretty it was too! We also got a view of the Barron River which we would go on a boat trip later.

On the way up to Kuranda, there a couple of stations which you can get off at and have a look around the rainforests on a couple of walks which was interesting. There were Rangers on hand to answer any questions and provide lots of information on the environment.

We also got some awesome views of the Barron Falls and powerstation which we would see again later from the other side of the gorge.

When we arrived in Kuranda, we decided to go on a boat cruise on the Barron River (http://www.kuranda.org/?p=27). This was awesome! On it we saw turtles, crocodiles, snakes, birds, mangrove trees and heaps of other stuff... Definately worth doing!!!!! There were a number of birds living on the boat as well.

Instead of heading up to Kuranda on the main road, we decided to do the rainforest walk. Here we saw some awesome waterfalls and waterways.

Kuranda markets itself as an arts and crafts town with a number of markets. It was pretty but very commercialised (not surprising given it's proximity to Cairns). One of the more interesting sights we saw was a lady with 4 baby/young wallabies which had all been rescued from accidents in a pram in the high street!

On the way back to Cairns, we got the Scenic Railway, the engine of which is decorated with Aboriginal art work. We got a second view of the Barron Falls from the other side of the gorge. An excellent day out!

A sunny week in Cairns Part 1

Off to Cairns....

At the end of August, we headed up to Cairns for a conference for a week or so... We flew up a couple of days before the conference and flew back a couple of days after it so we got a bit of time up there to explore the area.

On the first day, we spent the afternoon wandering around the town. It had changed quite a lot in the 10 years since I had last been there... Instead of just mud flats they had built a lagoon on the Esplanade which is a definate plus!!!! VVV nice but it was way to warm for us to sit out in the sun there!!!!!



We had a wander down the Esplanade, saw where I stayed as a backpacker (bit different to the Hilton where we were staying this time :-) ) and had a look at the pelicans which were on the mudflats.


The Cairns festival was on so that night we sat in a bar in the Pier complex and watched some awesome fireworks.

Cycling round Port Phillip Bay Sun 9th August

After our Vietnamese meal and drinks on Saturday night we felt surprisingly good on Sunday morning... As the sun was shining again (tis a hard life!) we decided to go out on our bikes round the Bay. In Australia, it is compulsory to wear a cycling helmet so we looked pretty good in all our get up.... not!



We headed out of Gardenvale, down Martin St and then turned left onto the coastal path. Our route took us passed North Rd and down towards Brighton. On the way, we got some great views of the CBD, the Westgate Bridge and a sailing race.




After a quick photostop, we then continued on our way down towards the Brighton Yacht Club and Brighton swimming pool.




On Dendy Beach, just beyond the Yacht Club, there were quite a lot of kite surfers out enjoying the winter sunshine and fairly strong breeze. We spent quite a while watching them moving at a great pace across the water and doing lots of jumps etc. It is something we both fancy trying at some point but are waiting for the temperature to warm up a wee bit first!



We then carried onto Brighton Beach where you can get the most awesome views of the CBD again as well as the Brighton Beach Huts.



Today, there was lots of dead jellyfish on the beach as well.



We had made a picnic at home and so decided to have our lunch a bit further down the coast at Hampton. This was the view from our picnic table - it is hard life over here in Melbourne sometimes especially given that we are still in "winter" :-)...... We had a good look at some of the sea birds playing in the rockpools as well as sitting drying their wings off whilst we ate.

We carried on our bike ride through Sandringham, Black Rock and Beaumaris before turning round and heading back to Sandringham. By this point, my knees were a bit sore and the gears on my bike were not working that well and as we were also cycling into the wind we decided to jump on the train from there back to Gardenvale and home.

Overall a good weekend exploring two very different areas of Melbourne but both fantastic in their own way... It really did feel like we were on holiday this weekend! Sure we will be seeing lots more of both of them in the coming months as it gets warmer as we head into Spring.

Day out in the Dandenongs

On Saturday the 8th August, the sun was shining and we had nothing planned in the day... So we decided to go out to the hills near Melbourne called the Dandenongs. The drive to the foothills at Ferntree Gully only took about 45 mins which was great as we really had no idea how long it would take.



We drove up the tourist road and stopped off in Olinda for lunch. We had the most amazing pie and chips from a place called Pie in the Sky (http://pieinthesky.net.au/).



We then headed off to Olinda Falls to have a look at the waterfall there. We got lost a couple of times on our way there and ended up driving quite a long way out of our way through fab forests and scenery. Once we got there, the short walk to work off some of our lunch which took us to the top of the falls through areally pretty forest... The trees were really tall - check out the one with Chris at the bottom of it.







The walk to the top of the waterfall was really easy and although they were cute we were not overly impressed!







So we took a fairly steep path down to the bottom of the falls. Here they were more impressive but still not a whole lot of water.... Although I guess that is to be expected in the time of a drought.







We then decided to head up towards the top of Mt Dandenong and arrived in a place called Kalorama and had a look at the pretty view out over the Silvan Reservoir. A pretty wee place but not much there apart from a cafe and some shops (a bit like a lot of the villages up there to be honest!!).







After we had finished there, we decided to head up to SkyHigh at Mt Dandenong(http://www.skyhighmtdandenong.com.au/) to get some views over the city and see what there was there. After paying $5 to get in we had a good wander around and saw lots of things as well as some good views over to the CBD - I imagine the views would be amazing on a clearer day although not sure how often they occur. It was interesting to see just how much Melbourne sprawls.... There was lots to see and do up there although a lot of it was aimed more at kids... There was a big maze, an English Garden, a secret garden and lots of other things to look at.







We then decided to head home as we were going out for a Vietanamese meal with friends in the evening but we had to stop in Olinda for a quick slice of cake :-) On our way out of the Dandenongs we headed into the Tourist Info who gave us lots of really good ideas for other walks and things to do in the area which I am sure we will go back and do soon...