On our last day in Sydney we left the city, rented a 4×4 and headed up the Blue Mountains. I was confused for awhile as we drove along – it felt like we were in the mountains, the houses were suitable for mountains, there was lots of pines around……but no mountains 🙂 Turns out the Blue mountains are actually a plateau. It was all gorgeous – fab views, waterfalls and sleepy villages. It weirdly felt like Cape Cod…..certainly American rather than Australian.

Our flight to Cairns the next day was uneventful and only 3.5 hours.
The minute we got off the plane you knew you were somewhere different — the walkway off the plane had opeen sides, with lush vegitation everywhere. The smell was wonderful and it was about 25 degrees.

We are staying in an apt. In a resort – and it’s like paradise. Its also rather nice to have more space than a hotel room…..its also nice to cook again (yep, evidence i am losing my mind – choosing cooking over eating out).

We chilled by the pool for our first day – then Monday we took a cable car over 7km over the top of the rainforest. We took a horse trek through the forest (only thing in the whole trip Cora cared about) – adam and cora were great.
We then took an old, “steam” train back down.

I wasn’t completely bowled over by the forest – it’s the dry season, so it all actually was like a European wood – just bigger. There was very little mention of the animals living in the area, which was weird. The rainforest village at the top of the cable car was a complete tourist trap, with little to do other than eating and shopping.

We chill again tomorrow and then go to the barrier reef on Wednesday. That should be amazing.