On the way out in the morning we did the last boarwalk: Dubuji, which looked different than the others had on previous days, due to the heavy rain the night before.  There was lots more water in the creeks and everything seemed sort of steamy.  This was a longer walk with lots of lowland rainforest, mangroves, endless palms and lots of posted info.

We’d pretty much given up hope on spotting the elusive cassowary by the time we started driving south and out of the World Heritage area, but shortly before we reached the cable ferry, crossing the road was a cassowary…presumably a male, since he was accompanied by two small striped babies.  Yeah!  At last.  We watched them walk off into the woods until they disappeared from view.  By the time we got the camera out they were too far, it was too dark and misty, and we had missed our chance for a good photo, but the excitement of the moment had delayed the action of grabbing the camera.  We’ve got a great picture in our minds though, one that will last.

On the way back south, we took an inland route through Mareeba, where we tasted (and purchased) some Mango Wine and had lunch near the Mareeba Wetlands.  Then we drove on to Kuranda, a popular day-trip from Cairns and its whistle stop tours from the scenic railway and skyrail.  We walked the boardwalk through the rainforest canopy and into the open forest of the Barron Gorge National Park, down to the Barron Falls lookout.  After a quick walk around town, we head for Cairns.

Our very last stop before hitting the city again was Yorkey’s Knob, where we sat for a while and watched the kitesurfers take advantage of a very windy afternoon and choppy seas to get in some serious practice.  They made catching air and doing flips and jumps look way easier than we imagine it must be.  After dropping off the rental car we ended up booking a 4-day, 4-night live-aboard dive trip out to some special spots on the Great Barrier Reef.  More on that to come!

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