Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
One of the many possible day trips from Cairns is to travel to Kuranda. I highly recommend that you do it too. There are a few different ways you can get there. One is to drive but since I don't have a car I had to find another way. A couple other ways is to take the Skyrail or the Kuranda Scenic Railway. Now I couldn't decide which one of those options I wanted to take so I chose both. I would take the Skyrail up and then take the Scenic Railway back down. I easily bought a package deal that would allow me to do just that....plus spend most of the day up in Kuranda.
At 0830 I was picked up at my hotel and taken to the Skyrail station. With all the other people that needed to be picked up it was about a 45 minute drive but there was some commentary so it was ok. Once at the Skyrail station I got all the tickets I would need for the day and then I hopped on the Skyrail.
This is the Skyrail.
You probably want a little bit more information about the Skyrail though don't you. Well it is a 7.5 kilometre (just over 4.5 miles) of gondola that takes you over the rain forest and up to Kuranda. The rain forest, also known as the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, happens to be home to 50% of the bird species and around 60% of the butterfly species you will find in northern Queensland.
A little video of some of my voyage over the rain forest. A nice relaxing ride.
The whole ride takes about an hour and a half depending on how long you decided to stay at the two stops along the way. The first was at Red Peak Station where you have the opportunity to take a nice little boardwalk hike through the forest.
A section of that boardwalk. Very nice with non-slip strips. It is the rain forest after all so you can imagine that at some point there might be some rain here. You will be happy to know that I only saw a few drops on the way up.
Some of the many very big trees you will see here. This tree was too big to get in one picture so you only get to see the top part.
I then hopped back on to the Skyrail and headed up to the next station which was at Barron Falls.
Yes from here they look a little more like Barron Trickles than Falls but these falls sit below the Barron Gorge Hydroelectric Station so the only time you see the falls really big is during the rainy season when the weir is opened.
Some of the old equipment. This is a haulage trolley. It was used to carry people and supplies to the original power station that was at the base of the gorge. A little bit of a drop and a treacherous rail to travel.
At the Barron Falls Station there is also an interpretive centre with all kinds of information about the rain forest and the animal and plant life that call it home. Lots of little pieces of information in there.
This is one of my favourite signs. Yes I find it funny. Cassowaries are not often seen in the wild but they are very protective of their young. A cassowary, if you are not sure, is kind of like an emu but a little bit shorter. They live in the rain forest and are very important to its survival. And apparently when they attack it is not a pretty sight.
Eventually I finished my Skyrail trip and arrived in Kuranda. It certainly is a nice enjoyable trip up. Once in Kuranda I had to decided how to spend my day. The village is full of little shops and cafes. It didn't take me long to get into one of the art galleries and buy an amazing print by a local aboriginal artist. I will have to post a picture of it once I get it put up somewhere.
Some of the fun art I found in Kuranda. A great little place. A litter touristy but that has never bothered me before so it certainly doesn't bother me now.
I then had to make a choice of a few places to visit....or go for a long hike. I quickly decided against the hike. It was way too hot so instead I had to decide between the Butterfly Sanctuary, Koala Gardens or Birdland. I couldn't find myself enjoying $17 worth of butterflies so naturally I headed to the Koala Gardens.
Guess what! The Koala Gardens is full of sleepy little koalas. You're shocked.....I know.
This one woke up so I could take his picture.
Lazy, lazy, lazy kangaroos. If you want to hand feed these guys you will have to climb right under there and do it. They will not move or reach or even turn their head to get some food. I tired of them quickly and moved onto the wallabies. They are much cuter anyway.
A mama wallaby and her joey. Yes they are outside the fence. I guess she likes to head out there in the morning when someone opens the gate for her and then she will eventually make her way back inside the paddock......but only when she's good and ready. By the way , wallabies are cute. Baby wallabies.....so much cuter.
She will eat out of your hand right through the fence. So cute!!!! I loved her. The little one didn't seem interested in hand food just yet. I guess he still likes milk.
Now as you can imagine this little guy was my absolute favourite. How cute is he? Couldn't you just take him home to live with your koala? I could. Yes he is very tiny. He would totally fit in the apartment. I spent quite a long time feeding him. I just couldn't help it.
As the day went on I eventually had to leave my cute little wallaby friends and head somewhere else. I didn't really want to leave them but I was going to have a train to catch so went to check out a few other things first. On the recommendation of a couple I have run into a few times already in the Cairns area (we are apparently on the same tour schedule) I went to visit Birdland. I was told it was nice and fun and the birds will come right up to you and sit on your shoulders.
I like him. Not totally sure what kind of bird he is but he was quiet and just sat there. Didn't bother me at all.
As I went to enter Birdland I was warned by the bird keepers that if they land on my shoulder they will probably have my earrings removed in no time flat so just give them a little shake and they will get off. That instantly put me on edge because I really didn't need to have a bird remove my earrings. That should have been a clue that I wasn't going to like Birdland. But in I went to see some birds.
This is a cassowary. Nice little birds when there is a fence in the way. Interesting thing about these birds, it is the male that sits on the eggs and raises the little baby cassowaries. I mentioned earlier that they are very important to the survival of the rain forest. A big reason for that is because they do a lot to spread seeds throughout the rain forest floor. Cassowaries have a very slow moving digestive system which means they can move seeds up to 30 kilometres (almost 19 miles) from where they ingest them. In short this means that you don't see large concentrations of the same trees in the same area. They also have big and scary clawed feet so even though they are shorter than me (this one anyway) I would not want to meet one that was protecting a baby.
Some of the pretty yellow birds you will find in Birdland. I liked these ones.
I didn't like this one. I should have known by the look on his face that he was up to no good. No good at all.
Here's that same macaw. As you can see he is trying to eat the strap on my shirt. Let me tell you the whole story. So I took the first picture of him and I could tell by the look on his face that he was going to jump on me. He was big so I was not so comfortable with that idea so I kept backing away from him. He kept following me. I made the mistake of turning my back on him and he jumped on my backpack. After a few failed attempts to shake him off I reached back to hit him off and he jumped on my arm. Remembering what the bird keeper told me I started to shake my arm to get him off. Instead he simply made his way up my arm and then eventually jumped on the back on my head where he proceeded to eat my hair. The lady who took this picture tried to help me get him off my head but that just caused him to grasp onto my braid with his beak and my scalp with his claws. Eventually a bird keeper came out from inside and very forcefully had to remove him from my head all while saying "he knows he's not suppose to do that". He flew away but then very quickly began stalking me again. That is when I decided I had had enough of Birdland. Large birds, now on my list of Australian things I don't like (along with pythons who stick their tongue out at me (well ok all pythons) and lizards who don't stay where they belong.....and cane toads because like many things Australian.....they're poisonous).
Once I left Birdland I wandered through one of the markets (didn't find anything I really liked) and then made my way back to the Art Gallery where I had bought my picture. In the afternoon they put on a show of traditional dances and since I really enjoy it I thought I would check it out.
The dancers. Can you see the didgeridoo? It is massive. I saw this in the art gallery. It is much, much taller than me. It is practically a small tree.
Some more dancing.....and a much better video. This is very similar to what I saw last night at the Tjapukai Cultural Centre. Different dancers but the same dances because they come from the same area.
Once the dancing was over I had some lunch and then it was time to head back down the mountain. My travel method down would be the Kuranda Scenic Railway. The railway was completed in 1891 and was used for transporting goods and people up and down the mountain when there was a lot of mining in the area.
The train. Quite an interesting trip. It travels along cliffs with 327 metre (1072 feet) sheer drops and slopes as steep as 45 degrees. As you can imagine, many a life was lost building the railway. It took the removal of 2.3 million metres of earthworks to create the 15 tunnels, 93 curves, dozens of bridges and 75 kilometres of track that make up the rail line.
Sitting on the train. It was in 1936 that the first tourist voyages were made along this track.
The train heading around a bend.
I offered some one $10 just to pull it. I'm sure at least one person has attempted to stop the train in a non-emergency situation. $10 doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent.
Another view of Barron Falls.......but from the opposite side. This is one of the only places on the train trip where you can get off the train and look around.
The view of Cairns from the trip. Still a long ways down. The end of the rail line is right in the city (about a block from my hotel) so there is a lot of travel left a this point of the voyage.
In all the trip takes about one hour and 45 minutes. Great little trip and I highly recommend it. After a full day of travelling around and the trip up and down the mountain, I spent the rest of my day/night resting and relaxing and of course preparing for my next day trip. No rest when you're only in town for a few days.
Julie
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