Fitzroy Island

The other main tourist thing we wanted to do from Cairns was go to one of the islands to snorkel. Unfortunately the weather has mostly been overcast, wet and/or windy while we've been here, and Dazz had meetings on the two days with the best forecast... One of the meetings was an early one, though, and I was able to get ferry tickets to Fitzroy Island at 10:45am, so that was our best option.

It was a beautiful day, with the high cloud clearing during the afternoon.

The water clarity was very average, especially compared to our last snorkelling experience in Coral Bay. The coral was also in rather poor condition. Some seemed to have been bleached and other areas were likely destroyed by cyclones. There were some glimpses of colour and areas that would have been very pretty prior to bleaching. In spite of the lack of coral there was still a variety of fish, and we also saw a number of turtles.

Waiting for the ferry home.

Kuranda

We're in Cairns now, for a total of almost two weeks. I found a 30% off deal on one of the caravan parks a few weeks ago, which made it economical to stay here while Dazz has work, and also allowed us to (try to!) pick good days for the couple of touristy things we wanted to do. In spite of the forecast for fine weather, the day we picked to go to Kuranda wasn't exactly blue skies... We still had an enjoyable day, though.

Kuranda Scenic Railway

Stoney Creek Bridge and Falls

Barron Falls

Kuranda Weir

Kuranda Station - The station quickly emptied of people as they raced into the village to see and do things, so we had a quiet picnic lunch looking at this view.

Reminiscent of our plants outside the container house!

Australian Butterfly Sanctuary

After chasing a few butterflies on some of our walks, Dazz decided he would like to go to the Butterfly Sanctuary while were were in Kuranda. Unfortunately they don't have any Ulysses butterflies (apparently they are difficult to breed in captivity, and as they are protected they can't take them from the wild), but we had fun, and a good challenge, capturing these images. 

Lurcher

Cairns Birdwing (male & female)

Cruiser Butterfly (male)

Red Lacewing

Grass Yellow

Blue-banded Eggfly (male & female)

Orchard Swallowtail (male & female)

Common Eggfly (female) - No, this is not AI generated! Dazz happened to snap it just as I was moving my phone after videoing the butterflies on my arm.

Skyrail

Our trip home on the Skyrail started off fine.

The Barron River

The Barron Falls Station

Soaring over the canopy

Red Peak Station - By now it was raining quite heavily and we made use of their umbrellas to walk around the boardwalk. We love kauri pines... if the ones on our place ever get to this size they'll cause some problems for the shed!

We didn't think we were going to see much coming back down to Cairns.

We came out of the clouds, though, in time to get a bit of a view.