We had an afternoon arrival at Cairns and checked into the concierge floor of the Cairns Hilton (complements of my brother's frequent stayer card). Here is the sunset view of Cairns from the guest club.

The next morning we took the Skyrail Cableway which carried us above the canopy of the Baron Gorge National Forest. We made several stops at stations along the way to take walks through the forest and learn about the flora and fauna. The cableway dropped us at the mountaintop town of Karunda, where we had some time to explore the shops and the market.

In the afternoon we took a four wheel drive tour through the rain forest, which let us have a closeup view of the trees and plants of the rain forest. Above the strangler fig vines take over a tree.

We also got a closeup view of this huge rare cassowary bird walking down the path in the forest. Our tour guides had been feeding a family of the birds, and occasionally they drop in on a tour group, as this one did, and watch the tourists as they eat a barbecue lunch in the rain forest.

Here is a lovely view of the mountains and the rain forest at the end of our excursion.