Cairns - Sky Rail to Kuranda

Hi.  We are now in the Blue Mountains east of Sydney and I have pretty good internet at semi-reasonable cost, so I'll put up another post.  Heading home tomorrow, but stay tuned for more posts after I get home.

Sunday, 2-27 in Cairns, Sky Rail to Kuranda

After the most popular attraction in Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef, there is nowhere to go but up.  Up, that is, into the mountains, although my nephew Jeff in Colorado would not call them mountains.  The entire east coastal area of Australia has a range of mountains, called the Great Dividing Range.

In many of these mountain areas, gold was discovered in the 19th century and it was imperative to construct railroads to transport the gold and other minerals to the coast for export.  Hence the railroad to Kuranda, which later became a tourist attraction and a hippie and artist haven in the 60’s and later.  In 1995, someone was smart enough to put in a gondola system all the way from Cairns to Kuranda, which passes over various rainforest environments.  You ride above the forest or sometimes through it, and there are two stops which allow you to experience the rainforest up close and personal.  So like most dutiful tourists, we went for it.  Our hotel concierge recommended the RainForeStation experience, which would normally be a train ride up and the gondola down, but the train was not running because of the high water from the rain so we were on the gondolas both ways.

The SkyRail to Kuranda - excuse the raindrops!

Ascending to the top of the first mountain was impressive, as the ocean was behind us and the rain forest below us.  Because of the rain (have I mentioned rain before?) the tops of the mountains were in the clouds, so we were in the clouds much of the time, but could still see the rainforest below.  When we came to the first stop, we got off and took the interpretive boardwalk through the rainforest.

It is, after all, a RAIN forest!

 It is interesting to note that the entire Australian continent was once rainforest, but now it is only a narrow strip along the Pacific coast.  Most of the continent is arid and treeless, partly due to climate change over the past two centuries, but also due to some lamebrain human intervention like introducing rabbits to the environment who multiplied (as rabbits are wont to do) and ate their way across the country.  With poor soil and lack of rain, the vast midlands (my term) of Australia never recovered.  But northern Queensland along the coast will get as much rain in a month as we get all year.  And guess the peak of the rainy season?  February and March, of course.  Who planned this vacation, anyway!?

The Planner

We got off again at the second stop to see Barron Falls, always a powerful falls, but especially amazing during the rainy season.  So, hey, at least we picked the best time to see Barron Falls!

Our first attraction in Kuranda was the Butterfly Sanctuary.  This was an amazing experience, and I couldn’t help but think about my grandson Sammy, who loves butterflies.  He could have spent the whole day here and would still have wanted more.  They “raise” their own butterflies here, feeding the caterpillars, waiting for the transformation that takes place inside the cocoon or pupa, then release the butterflies and moths into the contained viewing area, where they are fed at stations which appear to the butterflies to be flowers.  With hundreds of butterflies in the space, it is impossible to supply enough flowers to feed them.  If you want more information about this remarkable operation, go to www.australianbutterflies.com.  Pictures?  Well, I discovered that trying to take a snapshot of a butterfly in flight is nearly impossible (and somewhat comical to watch), but here are some representative images, Sammy.  More to come when we visit you in Geneva!

At RainForeStation, we first took a ride in a DUCK, an army amphibious vessel and got more education about the rain forest flora and fauna.  Here was one interesting sight - a termites nest with a bird nest in it!

Then we were treated to an Aboriginal show with dancing accompanied by the didgeridoo, a fascinating instrument played by vibrating lips, vocal chords, tongue movement, with the musician doing circular breathing, a technique some saxophone players use to keep the air flowing constantly without any breaks.  Then we got demonstrations of spear throwing and boomerang throwing, at which some of us tried our hand.  I bombed miserably, but I might have killed an earthworm or two.

The movie version is much better...

Back on the gondolas again, this time we were really in the clouds!

Plunging into the great abyss!

Then back to the hotel, where I managed to convince Karen that the heavy hors d’ouevres in the Executive Lounge were all the supper we needed.  Saved a few bucks anyway.