Cairns, Queensland
Sunday, October 30, 2005
We stopped off just north of Cairns at the “Sky Rail,” which is a cable car that takes you from the fringe of development up and over a range of hills for a close up of life in a tropical forest. This is the view looking back towards the edge of Cairns. Unfortunately, there is a bit of sprawl going on.
Development in the forest is a problem for the coral out on the Great Barrier Reef. It turns out that runoff, from urban households or from sugar cane growers, hurts the coral, even when it is 30 miles out in the ocean. Here is what the forest looks like close up. It is very dense, and the number of species is impressive.
We landed in Cairns on the Coral Sea and immediately rented an automobile. The steering wheel is on the right side, and right hand turns at intersections were a thrill a minute.
Next—out first look at the Great Barrier Reef, from Port Douglas.
