When looking for day-trips in the Cairns area, we stumbled upon this company offering a combined horse riding and ATV activity day. It sounded like our cup of tea, so we booked it up.

Blazing Saddles is located about 40 minutes drive from Cairns, just west of of the tourist-mecca that is Kuranda. The riding takes place on expansive private land which gives you a nice feeling of being in the QLD tableland wilderness.

First up was the horse riding and we had to join the beginners group (sob). As was expected, the horses were led round a route in a very 'auto-pilot' mood which wasn't exactly gun-toting wild west action. That said, if you have the skills you can go in the advanced groups and gallop around the countryside which looked much more fun.

After a BBQ lunch, we donned helmets and headed out on the guided ATV tour. This time we put ourselves in the advanced group wanting as much adrenalin thrills that they could throw at us. After a short intro to determine our skills, we were blasting across the countryside, occasional power-drifting round corners and weaving through tight tree-lined river routes. Awesome fun!