Wheelchair Holidays : Australia - Cairns, Including The Great Barrier Reef & Kurunda

Cairns - Including The Great Barrier Reef & Kurunda

Cairns is arguably the most popular gateway to one of the world's natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef off the Eastern coastline of Australia. It also offers tourists the opportunity of experiencing a tropical rainforest through the nearby mountaintop town of Kurunda, or the option of taking a beautiful coastal drive north to Port Douglas. No trip to Australia is really complete without a visit to the GBR, but for mobility disabled people (particularly wheelchair bound) this can be difficult to achieve because of the need to reach the reef by boat. 

Sunlover Cruises helped us get out to the GBR and a genuinely helpful crew went out of their way to make it an enjoyable trip. It started with us making use of a wheelchair taxi (in lieu of their usual bus which collects passengers from their hotels around town) to transport us down to the harbour (and would collect us at the end of the day). Sunlover's jetcat has an onboard wheelchair toilet and accessible tables inside, though we preferred the feeling of wind in our hair on the outer deck. Most reef cruises make use of a jetcat to ferry folks to-and-from the reef, and have a permanently moored pontoon at their allocated reef spot. Sunlover's pontoon and semi-submersable were accessible to wheelchair users with assistance from the crew, and their glass-bottomed boat to non-wheelchair users. If you have a bigger budget they also offer helicopter tours of the reef from off of the pontoon. The pontoon is literally a "springboard" into the shallow waters above the reef, which is sometimes only three or four feet below the water‚s surface. The use of lifevests are recommended (and actively encouraged by the crew). The crew were quite prepared to assist in getting me into the water and close to the reef and fish.

The little town of Kurunda can be reached by car, steam train, or via the SkyRail (a 5 mile cable way), the latter traversing the beautiful tropical rain forests and the spectacular Barron Falls which were in full flood following a recent cyclone. A brilliant route, with two optional stop-offs, and well worth the whole day we gave it. The SkyRail staff are pretty fussy about handling wheelchairs and insist on loading and unloading folks themselves. Whilst this might put some people off who like their friends or family to "do the honours", we'd have to admit that the staff handled things very well. The little SkyRail gondola‚s have a 28-inch limit on their door widths which might present some with an access problem. Once in, the ride is relatively easy and even with Hilton‚s bad balance he handled things well, with a little support from Loretta on the entries and exits from the docking stations. The two stop-offs allow you to take accessible boardwalks into the rainforest for short guided tours, or quietly relax in your own time (there is no minimum or maximum stop-off time).

Sadly we can't comment on the steam train because two cruise liners had docked in Cairns and their passengers had booked all the rides! What we can say is that the train station looked accessible (unconfirmed) and the train route would offer tremendous views of the waterfalls and forest. Next time. The town of Kurunda, stocked with curio shops, markets, and tourist attractions, has some very steep gradients on the roads, but one positive is that there is hardly any road traffic, so its easy to walk in the streets and take your time!

Cairns itself is really just a tourist hub, but the sidewalk café's offer great places to relax after a hot day on the reef or in the forest! On the warm summer's evenings (is it ever cold there?!) there is a real buzz in the café's as suntanned holidaymakers recount their day's activities. There are a number of interesting markets offering wonderful t-shirts (amongst the best in Australia) and momento's. We also tried some of the food courts, enjoying the local baramundi fish (the best we'd had in Aussie) and some excellent Chinese won-ton's. 

We'd originally booked a room at the Cairns Queenslander (through Flag Choice) which provided an upstairs suite, but when we arrived we found it was on the 1st floor and were told that they shut down the elevators at 20h00 with no exceptions! So we cancelled the booking, and went across the road to the Best Western. Flag's loss, Best Western's gain. We were there in March and our impression was that we needn't have worried to book a hotel room, a quick whip around the town would have secured one at a good rate. With regard to transport we hired a car, which we picked up at the airport. It is worth noting that there were no cars available on request, as some other passengers found to their cost, and we were pleased that we had pre-booked with Hertz. Whether this was the exception rather than the rule we cannot say. It's not essential for us to have a car for getting around Cairns (you can use the wheelchair cab service), but it is convenient. On a slightly unusual note, just outside the airport is an accessible boardwalk trail through a genuine mangrove swamp, complete with fiddler crabs, popping mud and a couple of million mosquitoes hungry for fresh meat!

A fascinating walk, but only if you have repellant.

I am permanently confined to a wheelchair through spinal muscular atrophy. My wife and I have repeatedly proved that travelling in a wheelchair is neither daunting, nor limiting, and hope our experiences will be of benefit to others. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require any additional information.

Reproduced with kind permission of Hilton Purvis
P O Box 371,
Noordhoek, 7979,
South Africa.

Wheelchair Holidays : Australia - Cairns, Including The Great Barrier Reef & Kurunda