CAIRNS - Kuranda Village

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Saturday 27th November

Our new room is much better and we got a decent sleep with the aircon left on but there’s no happy medium for me as I grabbed an extra blanket as I started shivering during the night. Aye im a moaning git.

We are picked up after a mishap as our bus drove past us and I had to phone the company to come back and get us. No worries as we are soon on our way past Redlynch and onto Freshwater village for our skyrail trip.
Spanning 7.5 km over Barron Gorge National Park, the Skyrail experience includes a scenic cableway ride and stops at two rainforest mid-stations.

Our first phase of the skyrail took us 2km up the Macalister Range into the Rainforest in Barron Gorge National Park. As we rose higher in the skyrail we could see the vegetation and fauna changing until eventually we reached Skyrail’s Red Peak Station which is the highest point of the cableway, at 545m (1788 ft) above sea level. Here, Skyrail’s Rangers conduct guided boardwalk tours on a 175 m rainforest boardwalk high up in the Macalister Range hilltop.
We spotted a very large spider hanging in its web by the toilets and it was a challenge walking around him to get to the toilet door. He was massive, about 8 inch in diameter and you could see his mouth moving as he chomped a fly..grim!

Our next stop after hopping back on the skyrail was the Barron Falls Station situated adjacent to the Barron Falls. Here you can walk the boardwalks which lead to three lookouts of the Falls although its quite hard to get a good view as the jungle has grown over and across the lookout points.

We hop back on once more and took the last skyrail gondola up to the Kuranda Village which is a town of 650 people surrounded by rainforest in the Atherton Tableland area.

The Barron Gorge National park around Kuranda has been home to the Djabugay people for over 10,000 years. Europeans began to explore the area throughout the nineteenth century. It is believed a massacre of indigenous people took place at the location in Kuranda known as Skeleton Creek. Kuranda was first settled in 1885.

We walked around the village and its blistering hot now to the point that we try and walk under the shop canopies as much as possible.
There are lots of nice cloth shops and Aboriginal shops selling artworks and carvings. There's lots of places to eat although a tad pricey but we have our pasta salad tucked away in our bags for later.
We arrive at the Koala Wildlife park and paid to get in and immediately we are faced with an old crashed plane in the trees which is just for show. Just past here is the crocodile pond which has around ten or twelve crocs basking in the sun, some are small with the largest being about 3m long.

We saw some interesting monoliths and iguanas as we made our way to the Koala area and as we arrived there they were sleeping in their trees. We wanted our photos taken with one and waited a couple of minutes until someone came and took our photos with a 4 year old koala called Princess.
They are so cute and they smell of eucalyptus funnily enough! They are very docile and their fur is quite soft. Once the formalities of the photos was done we had a look at some of the other sleeping Koalas and they are truly lazy buggers. They sleep for 18 hours a day and when they are awake they do nothing but eat eucalyptus leaves and fight one another for the comfiest branch to sleep on! I really hope to see a wild one later on our trip as these ones look a bit prim and proper.

As we were leaving some lady hijacked us with a large 8ft long Olive Pyton which made Jill run off. I held the snake briefly and the lady and I coaxed Jill into coming back to have a feel as she was pooping herself. Jill managed to have a touch of the Python and it felt weird as you could feel its muscles moving as it squirmed away, its also warm and has a leathery texture, perfect for making bags or shoes!!

We ventured onwards and walked through the kangaroo and wallaby area. We each grabbed a handful of animal feed and went and tookk a close look at the kangaroos and wallabies which were lazing in the sunall around us. These guys are really tame and you can pet them and they will eat the food out your hands. The Kangaroos legs pack a powerful punch and you can see why as they are pure muscle. I tried to coax one onto his feet but he was having none of it and i did want to push the issue although we were quite happy to get this close and feed them without any fears. They are lovely but once again i hope to see one inn the wild to see if the wild ones get easy food, washed and shampooed like these ones.

Our koala photos are pretty cool as we looked at them on our way to the train station. We arrived at the historical Kuranda railway station and had our pasta as we waited for our train to depart.

Kuranda Station is itself something of a tourist attraction. Constructed in 1915, it has somehow managed to transform itself into a railway botanical garden. Much as stationmasters were once famed for their horticultural instincts, you will never have seen anything on a railway platform quite like this as theres large trees, bushes and colourful plants all over the station which makes it very pretty indeed.

Downhill the line cuts through the Barron Gorge National Park. The tourist train stops at a lookout, with a sweeping view of Barron Falls. A number of smaller waterfalls are passed, including Stoney Creek Falls, just metres from the train. As the train travels up and down, a detailed commentary of the railway's construction is provided as we travel all the way down to Cairns taking about 1hour 50 minutes.

It was 1882 and the miners of Herberton were on the brink of total starvation, unable to get supplies due to flooding. A route to civilisation was desperately needed and adventure bushman Christie Palmerston was charged with finding a starting point for a railway.

The Premier Sir Samuel Griffiths turned the first sod for the line which was to be built in three stages. Dense jungle and cliffs with sheer drops of up to 327 metres and a slope as steep as 45 degrees were literal death traps for workers. Many died building this Railway and tunnels. Somehow, without modern equipment but simply fortitude, dynamite and bare hands the team eventually finished the job.

After removing 2.3 million metres of earthworks, creating 15 tunnels, 93 curves, dozens of bridges and 75 kilometres of track, a banquet high up on the bridge the Governer of Queensland marked the completion of Stoney Creek Bridge. Shortly after in June of 1891 the line was open for everyone to enjoy.
The original Kuranda Scenic Railway is truly a legendary demonstration of man’s ingenuity and nature’s wonder.

Our train used for this journey 'The Savannahlander' consists of refurbished 1920s carriages hauled by a modern diesel locomotive. Its mega comfy with old style long seats and slide down windows. We rarely went over 30 mph and slowed down to 5mph for the bridges and tunnels.

We set off and after about twenty minutes we stopped at the Barron Gorge for some photos before setting off again through the Rainforest every so often cutting through a tunnel cut into the mountain. There are fifteen tunnels in total with the longest tunnel being the first one we pass through at 430 metres long.

We arrived at stoney Creek Bridge and it was awesome as the Stoney Creek Falls are literally powering down just yards from our window.
The curved bridge has to be seen to be believed as its 200 metres long and curves around in an almost impossible angle and elevation. It quite tetchy looking out the window and down the gorge to one side with a raging waterfall on the other. Definitely the highlight of the Railway journey. Another noticable point on the track was the Horseshoe Curve which was pretty cool as you could see the whole train as it turned behind us around the bend.

We eventually pass Redlynch then arrive at freshwater railway station where most people jump off to catch a bus into Cairns but we stayed on the train which took us all the way into the heart of Cairns which is not far from our hostel, perfect!

We spoiled ourselves and grabbed a chinese dinner for tea and had a lazy night in watching the tv. The weather forecast looks great for tomorrow which is good news as we are doing a scenic flight over the Great Barrier Reef.

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