{"id":2562,"date":"2025-10-02T14:49:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carmendownunder.nl\/?p=2562"},"modified":"2025-11-28T03:26:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T16:26:17","slug":"cairns-kuranda-en-botanische-tuin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carmendownunder.nl\/en\/2025\/10\/02\/cairns-kuranda-en-botanische-tuin\/","title":{"rendered":"Cairns: Kuranda and Botanical Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

We got up early (4:45 a.m.) because we had to leave early to reach our destination on time. We saw a lot of bats! After a bit of a delay, we left around 5:35 a.m. I slept a bit longer in the car. At Smithfield Terminal, we took the shuttle bus to Fairview Station, where we had to wait quite a while (we watched the horse, ate a sandwich, and two of the group got stung by some kind of creature, a bee?) before the train we'd bought our tickets for arrived. It was a "Scenic Railway" to Kuranda. And scenic it was indeed! We saw a few waterfalls, had beautiful views of the countryside\/mountains, etc. It was hot, though, because such an old-fashioned train doesn't have air conditioning. Along the way, the train stopped at a large waterfall for a quick peek. Once in Kuranda, we wandered around the markets and the shopping street. We also visited an Aboriginal art gallery, which was beautiful! We even did a little geocache with Cynthia and Angela, haha. Oh, and I saw a jackfruit tree! It's so cool that these kinds of plants grow outside and produce fruit. We also had a quick look around the visitor center, where I saw a cool spider and a walking stick insect in a terrarium. I heard some Dutch babbling at the cash register, so I thought, let's be really sociable and walk up to random people to strike up a conversation. Well, I'm so glad I did! It started off well when I asked if they were Dutch and got a "yeah, duh" kind of response back, which was nice. The conversation was fine otherwise; the two older women were from Den Helder, in some obscure village. Then I was asked: "I hear you have an accent. You're not Dutch, are you? Where are you from?" \u2026\u2026\u2026. From the Netherlands?? I feel like I still speak decent Dutch, but who knows. I actually think they're just not used to accents outside their village. My friends thought it was funny when I told them about it afterward, surprised. After the visitor center, we wandered back through the main shopping street\u2014it's not that big, actually, a pretty small village. We picked up a drink somewhere (sugar cane lime and ginger juice; I later found out that Arthur had apparently bought the exact same thing when he was in Kuranda, telepathy or something). Then we came to a thrift store where we admired a couple who both had a parrot on their shoulder. They noticed, and then we were allowed to hold the parrot for a moment: Oh, wow! A parrot on my arm right there on the street, I didn't expect that. What a beautiful creature <3 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it was time to go, this time taking the Skyrail back! The gondola made a few stops along the way where we could have a look around. Once back down, we had a few last hours, so we drove back to Cairns (I drove this time!), where we went to an art museum. A nice escape from the sun, haha (I was turning red, because I'd been smart enough not to put on sunscreen). After the art museum, we drove to the Botanical Gardens. I had a blast taking pictures of plants, because there were so many beautiful, cool, and unfamiliar plants! And of course, a lot I recognized from Leurs. I also saw some strange spiders, with a crab-like body. Apparently, that was the first spider to be named in Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, every vacation must come to an end. So we drove to the car wash to give the car a good cleaning with laser spray and vacuum cleaners. I'd never been to a car wash before, so I thought those water jets on the window looked pretty cool. We returned the car at the airport and then waited for our flight and had a bite to eat at Hungry Jack's (that's what Burger King is called in Australia). We slept a bit on the flight. After that, we went to Wingstop with Sunny and Angela; apparently, it's an American chain they're fans of. It was indeed delicious. We ate our food at their student complex and then finally went home, tired. <\/p>\n\n\n

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