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Published: November 3rd 2014
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** warning Alison Balderson this blog contains graphic images if butterflies **
Today was my final pre paid organised trip in Cairns. Again it was an earlyish start and I got picked up just after 7.30am by the tour company. I was greeted by some very friendly Canadians who were sat at the front of the bus. We continued around Cairns picking up people along the way and as our bus made it's way to the Karunda Scenic Railway he gave us a running commentary about the places we were passing along the way.
We got to the railway station slightly ahead of schedule so we had a little wander around the platform, museum and museum house. The railway was built to provide a supply line to the mining communities which had sprung up in the area due to the discovery of gold and tin.
We had our carriage already allocated to us - number 11 at the back of the train, and those who were riding the train got off the bus, not all,passengers had the same itinerary. The train arrived just before 9am and all the waiting passengers boarded the
train. The voice over told us that some of the carriages were over 100 years old and others dated back to the 1920s and 1930s.
The train pulled out of the station and started on it's steady slow journey up to the top of the hill. We passed fresh water station, Redlynch which is residentIl area, horse shoe bend which us a 180 degree bend with a five chain (100.58m) radius curve and begins the steep climb from freshwater valley to Karunda.
Track trivia :-)
1500 men worked on the construction of the railway
Cairns to Karunda 37km of track
The track ascends 327m above sea level
2.3 million cubic meters of earth were removed
There are 106 cuttings
15 hand carved tunnels
55 bridges
98 curves
On horseshoe curve it's possible to see the front of the train from the back and vice versa and it provides a photo opportunity. We also passed over a Steele span bridge which is another photo opportunity and some water falls which were a little low on water but still pretty. We also stopped off at
Barron Gorge to take photos of the waterfall, again it's a bit low as we are only just coming into the rainy season. The stop at Barron gorge is the only stop on route between cairns and Karunda.
The journey took about 1.15 minutes and nice at the top we were met by our coach driver who took us up to Karunda village. Here I had a wander around the market area and saw the 'plane crash' and visited a local gallery where I made a purchase or two and also bought some lunch. I then headed back to the bus which was due to take us to the Rain Forest National Park.
Here we went on an old 6 wheeled WWII amphibious/road 4 WD vehicle 'duck' there are a total of 12 in the fleet. We slowly made our way through the rain forest which actually used to be a coffee and fruit plantation but after it was no longer used it was planted back up as rain forest. We stopped at various intervals for our guide to point out various plants and tress bad we were lucky enough to see some baby
turtles and a couple of lizards, a tiny baby on perched on a rock and a bigger one up a tree. We made our way along the track and also into the large pond.
After the duck experience I caught the shuttle bus back to the village and had nearly 2 hours to kill before by time slot fort he sky train cable car ride back down to the cairns station. I decided to visit the butterfly sanctuary.
It was very warm and humid inside and there were butterflies of varying descriptions fluttering all over the place. Large ones, small ones, plainer ones and more colourful ones. The hardest to photograph are the Ulysess butterflies, they rarely settle and when they do it's for a fraction of a second, they have bright blue wings on top and brown underneath. The other well known one is green and yellow and called the Cairns Birdwing Butterfly. In places if you stay still long enough they will land on you, it was amazing when they did.
After the butterfly sanctuary I caught the shuttle bus to the sky train where I queued up to
catch the cable car. I shared my first ride with an Australian lady her son and her very tall German accented man. We had a little chat about my travels etc and then got off at the first station to take some photos of Barron gorge waterfalls and then I got back on again. The sky train goes over to tops of the rain forest and you can see for miles over to the mountains in the distance.
On my second ride I was on my own so I sat back and enjoyed the views, my nervousness of bring up high subsiding. I got off at the second view point and had a wander around the board walk through the rain forest and then got my final ride back down to the Cairns. At the bottom I had a drink and a Scooby snack before the driver came to pick us up. There was only 3 of us so it was a quick trip back to hostel.
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