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Published: September 2nd 2009
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On Sunday morning, we went for a wander around the huge Port Douglas market, before driving south towards
Cairns, and turning inland at
Smithfield towards the mountain village of
Kuranda.
Kuranda was somewhere we had planned to visit in 2005, but then we only got as far north as Cairns before turning inland and spending 3 days crossing the outback to Alice Springs. In fact, we saw most of this trip as a continuation/completion of the east coast Australia leg of our first world tour - Port Douglas, the Daintree, Cape Tribulation, Mossman Gorge, Kuranda were all within our sights, but the chance to go overland to Alice came up and there was only one bus with a couple of seats, so fate determined our course. Don't worry, we always say, we'll come back another day...
So, Kuranda, is as I mentioned above a mountain village, set high above Cairns, served by a most scenic railway and a cable car...that's how the tourists get there. We drove because we like tortuous mountain roads, hairpin bends and that feeling you can only get when you mix the freedom of the open road with a sense of potential doom...
Outside
the town we found the impressive
Barron Gorge, some waterfalls and another boardwalk. When it was time for lunch we returned to the village, explored their church and then found a number of food choices...we were initially attracted by a place renowed for its pies but instead found nearby a German cafe serving all manner of teutonic tucker, served with traditional teutonic hospitality:
-------------------
"Vot do you want?"
"Errr...have you got Emu bratwurst?"
"Ja"
"Good, we'll have one Emu Bratwurst and one Wei..."
"You vant potato salad?"
"No thanks...and one Weisswurst..."
"You vant potato salad mit that?"
"No thanks, and also some Brat Kar..."
"Weisswurst takes 20 mins!"
"Ok, we'll wait, and some Brat Kartoffeln" (fried potatoes with onion)
"Brat Kartoffeln takes 30 mins!"
"Ok, we could wait?"
"You could haf potato salad! It's very good."
"No thank you, and just give us a normal Bratwurst, one of those already cooking there, instead of the Weisswurst"
"The Emu Bratwurst takes 15 mins!"
"Ok, so, we can wait for the Weisswurst then and perhaps get the Brat Kartoffeln too?"
"Nein...but you can have
Weisswurst, Emu Bratwurst und potato salad!"
"Ok, we'll take that then...without the potato salad..."
----------
The above is a shortened extract of a much longer conversation that also involved discussions around sauerkraut, onions, having sausages served hot-dog style or not, choosing drinks, the fantastic range of german beer on offer etc. After all the fuss and the wait (which was more like 45 mins, even without the fried potatoes) the sausages were absolutely delicious and all credit to the place. Einfach Toll! Em was delighted to get to eat some Emu, although Tim was happy to stick to Pork/Beef. It's called 'German Tucker' and we highly recommend the food and atmosphere and even the german versions of 80's pop-tunes! (Hopefully, if they read this they'll take it as the good-humoured travel piece it's intended to be).
Afterwards we went to the entrance of one of the numerous wildlife parks and asked how many wombats they had. Only one, unfortunately, so we put our money away and went to buy ice cream and fudge at 'Sugarworks', before beginning the drive back to Port Douglas. On the way back we spotted and then drove through a minor bush
fire - a new experience nonetheless.
We took some photos at the lookout over Port Douglas and then went back to our apartment to cook. We were determined to use up some more of the bbq food, and although we had no meat we bought some fish and had yet more potatoes and rice and some improvised stir fried veges.
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John Glennon
non-member comment
Emu sausage
Rod Hull is spinning in his grave you bad bad people.... and what's with all this travelling - don't you guys ever go to work? Tut tut tut From, Jealous of Liverpool x