Kuranda

A Major Mitchell's Cockatoo 

A cassowary in Bird World

Today, we woke up almost as early as I would have had to to go to school, to catch a train up a mountain to visit a shopping area called Kuranda.  The train was slightly delayed, but mot so much ass the train in Berlin!  We stopped a few times on the one and a half hour ride, including at Barron Falls, a waterfall running down a cliff out of a dam generating hydroelectric power for much of Cairns.  When we arrived at the top of the mountain (located on the Great Dividing Range, West of Cairns and running up and down the East cost) we started to shop right away.  There were shops selling souvenirs, clothing, jewelry (especially opal), and Aboriginal art.  We stopped for a while at one store that sold didgeridoos (dijereedus).  (A didgeridoo is a long, hollow piece of wood, carved out by termites used by the Aboriginal people.  The didgeridoo is one of the oldest instruments in the world, first being produced 25 or 30 thousand years ago!)  We eventually bought one, made of iron bark eucalyptus wood.  Iron bark eucalyptus is one of the densest types of eucalyptus, so it makes a very warm, full sound.


We walked around the markets for a little bit longer, saw a bird exhibit called Bird World, and it was already time to leave.  On our way down the mountain, we basically rode on a giant ski lift, and got to look from above the canopy at the dense rain forest below.  Tomorrow, we will be taking a ride into the rain forest to see it up close.