What a ride!!!!!

Watching and  waiting for the gondolas to arrive at the boarding platform built up the anticipation of the journey down from Kuranda to the Skyrail terminal atg Smithfield (not far from caravan park). Having a walking stick makes people more helpful so I was assisted onto the gondola.

We were fortunate to share our gondola with a young teacher from Sydney - she has been teaching Science and Mathematics for 6 years at a private girls' school. She was just as excited as me. Robert looked a little anxious but he chatted and made jokes for most of the ride.

It was a memorable experience and I'm so glad that we could share it with each other. Riding high over the canopy of the trees gave a bird's eye view of the landscape below. We saw many of the features that we noticed from the train but this time they were from a vastly different aspect. The trees were already high in the sky and we were higher again - Robert estimated that we may have been about 100 metres above ground level at times. I don't like climbing a ladder but this didn't bother me at all.

Not long after the ride started so did the rain and whilst it didn't make the journey less exciting, it was difficult to capture any good photos as the lens focussed on the raindrops clinging to the windows. 

I really wanted to glide through the mist and we did! Cool stuff! Crossing the Barron River from a height was another way to see this river again - everywhere we have been since arriving in the Cairns area, we seem to cross this river as it meanders its way to the sea.

As we made the descent from Kuranda, the weather changed as we gradually moved towards the terminal. From rain to sunshine, from cool breezes to warm humidity. The view was pretty spectacular as we could see sugar cane fields, cable water skiing (looked weird with no boat), suburbs of Cairns, islands and the coast line.

I rang Jennifer from the gondola - if I couldn't get access to Optus this high up, it wasn't going to happen.

The rumble and bump over the pylons was relatively smooth and the gondola didn't sway. For once, Robert didn't rock the boat as he has done on other chair lifts - must be an age thing.

The last leg was quite steep and arriving at the terminal, we were greeted by a very happy windscreen cleaner, who told us to smile on the electronic countdown and our photo was snapped. Many passengers queued to buy their $15 photo as well as numerous souvenirs from the gift shop that looked to be doing a roaring trade.

A great day!