Rain forests, cassowarys and waterfalls.

After spending the last two days wandering aimlessly around Cairns, I decided I needed to branch out a little bit. I booked a tour that would take me up to the rainforest and do some silly touristy things like pet kangaroos and learn to throw a boomerang.

I left this morning at 715 in the rain. We took a bus up to Kuranda in the rain. I pet the kangaroos in the rain. Despite my very very bad luck with the weather today, I had a grand time. I went to this place called Rainforestation, which is a little tourist attraction up in the jungle. They had cool animals...

Like these really stressed out, not at all relaxed kangaroos...

But they don't pose for pictures very well... they really like eating grass. 

This is a really cute wallaby. 

So yeah, the animals were awesome. Except for the cassowary. I didn't even photograph it because the first time I walked by, I was too afraid of it and the second time I walked by, it was hiding behind a bush. For those who don't know, a cassowary is a flightless jungle bird, like a smaller version of an emu or an ostrich. Now, for those of you who know my irrational fear of birds larger than chickens, you know that this bird, just in its mere existence is the embodiment of terror. Now, lets add some more variables to this terrible creature. 1). It looks like a dinosaur. Google it. 2). It's very territorial. 3). It has three razor sharp talons on each foot. Now, combine numbers 2 and 3 and you have a bird that will disembowel you if you piss it off. I'm sorry, if that's not the scariest animal in the jungle, I don't know what is. 

After the adorable/terrifying animals, we went to the next part of a tour, a demonstration of aboriginal tools, like spears, boomerangs and didgeridoos. I don't even want to talk about how terrible I am at throwing boomerangs and playing the didgeridoo. After failing both of those tasks, they definitely wouldn't let me play with the spear. 

The last leg on the Rainforestation extravaganza was a really cool tour through the rainforest in one of those amphibious boat/car things.

Rainforest! 

This rainforest is a World Heritage Site, which makes it super important and awesome (The Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon and Yosemite are among others). Well, from what I saw of it, I agree. Some of the plants made me feel like I was stepping onto the set of Jurassic Park. Really, really cool. 

So the next (and last) adventure of the day was the village of Kuranda. It's a cool little town nestled up in the rainforested mountains. It's a cool place to see and has other attractions within it, like a butterfly sanctuary and a spider zoo (yeah... a zoo just for spiders). I spent a little while browsing the shops, but once I decided I didn't want to spend any more money, the town got quite small. So I ventured out with my tour friend and we decided to go find Barron Falls, which was about a 5km walk (I have to learn kilometers now... dammit). It was a really lovely walk through more rainforest areas, although it was a little scary when I saw the sign that said "Caution: Recent Cassowary Crossing". Anyway, long story short, we found the falls and they were glorious. 

So that was my super cool day. I'm a big fan of the rainforest and hopefully I get back up in that region again, because I'm sure there are more really cool things to see. But now I'm going to try and buckle down and find a job in a dive shop. Wish me luck! If I don't get out to the reef soon, I might die.