The place of the platypus.

Kurunda is a small rainforest village about 35 km north of Cairns. It was originally settled by goldminers, abandoned and resurrected as a hippie commune full of markets, music festivals, and artist's studios. This attracted a lot of attention from the city. The skyrail was built to make travel to Kurunda easier. It's the longest gondola system in Australia. The old historic train line has also been refurbished and operates as a tourist attraction. You can take the skyrail up and then ride the train back down. And that's exactly what I did last week before flying down to Brisbane.

I spent the day browsing through the shops, eating dragonfruit and lime/apple/pineapple ice cream and snapping pictures of the interesting places around town. I wanted to add a few here, but it isn't happening yet! I'll try again soon...

O, and Kurunda means 'place of the platypus' in the local native language. Playtpus are one of the most difficult creatures to find in the wild, but the river in this area has great banks for sightings. Unfortunately, as the area was built up, the playtpus were pushed out of the area. Apparently, if you really want to see one you can travel north and sit very quitely at the side of the river at dusk and you might be able to spot one swimming by.