Kuranda

Tuesday October 26^th

An early start today to make our way to Kuranda, a small community high up in the rainforest. There are three ways to get there – road, narrow gauge railway and cable car (Skyrail). We went up by train and so started our day at Freshwater railway station.

The railway was built at the end of the 19^th century to ensure that the mining community in the mountains would not get cut off by heavy rains, as they had previously. We rode in a carriage which dated from the 1920s through spectacular scenery to a height of over 300m.

 

The journey took about an hour and a half and at last we reached Kuranda station, which was the way stations used to be - except with rainforest around you.

Kuranda is famous for its markets and has a large selection of shops but we passed these by and headed for the home-made ice cream van! We didn’t have coconut because Sue doesn’t like it!!

Lunch was at Rainforeststation Nature Park, after which we went to see the koalas. Marg had the chance to cuddle one but it had to be an official photograph – so we can’t put one on the blog.

Next was a trip in a WWII army duck through the rainforest on both land and water. There was so much to see. Highlights were a very lazy snapping turtle and the vivid blue Ulysses butterfly.

Part of the tour included a series of dances by the Pamagirri Aboriginal dancers. This was very touristy but still managed to be interesting and good fun.

Following this the dancers taught us to throw a boomerang ( yes it did come back! ), showed us how to throw a spear ( didn’t let us do this for some reason ) and play a didgeridoo.

Leaving Kuranda was a different experience as we travelled on the Skyrail – cable cars suspended high above the rainforest canopy.

It is 7.5 km from top to bottom and the views were incredible – except Marg was too scared to look! We got off at two stations during the journey and got more good views from the boardwalks through the rainforest.

At one stop we came across a brush turkey who was not a bit put out by our presence.

Our overall impression of Kuranda is that it is somewhere we are glad we went – if only for the stunning scenery, but would advise other travellers to buy your own train or Skyrail tickets and do your own thing. There are lots of tourist attractions but if you’d rather, there are trails to follow where you can just experience the natural beauty of the place.

All in all, another great day – finished in style with cocktails by the pool.