It looked like we were not going to get clear skies today as we ventured up into the Great Dividing Range west of Cairns.
Our ride up to the tourist (sorry historic) town of Kuranda was the Skyrail. The Skyrail is a 7.5 kilometre gondola cableway that takes you up, over and into the rain forest that surround Cairns. There is a couple of stops along the way.
The first stop is in the rain forest where we took a ranger guided tour along the boardwalk, learning a little more on the origins and life of a rain forest and of course it was raining.
The next stop is Barron Falls and we nearly made it to the falls without rain but no down it came. We did get to check out the falls and return to the Skyrail without getting too wet. The Falls were spectactular but there was a not a lot of water flowing over today. Most of the water is now diverted to produce hydro-electric power with enough water going over to maintain the falls.
The end of the line was the village of Kuranda. The town has history in mining but it is now purely for the tourist and the Skyrail is responsible for bringing in thousands each day. There are plenty of different tourist offerings from markets, museums, shops, gift stores, restaurants and cafes of any cuisine that you are looking for.
We decided on visiting the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary. And it was an experience with some 1500+ butterflies in the aviary including the colourful blue Ulysses and the majestic green & yellow Cairns Birdwing. I need a bit of practice to get a decent photo of these two. There is also an opportunity to see the nursery where eggs are hatched and caterpillars are transformed into butterflies. New butterflies are introduced into the aviary every day.
As soon as we left the butterflies, it started to bucket down. Luckily I was prepared with a poncho in my bag. Jenny and Rachael retreated to the shop to grab one each for themselves.
It was lunch time and there was all sorts of cuisine at tourist prices. All I wanted was a pie. Jenny and Rachael settled for Vietnamese while I got my pie. One more stop before boarding the train back to Cairns.
It was the Golden Drop Winery whose specialty is mango based wines. I was wondering if we were going to make our train as Jenny and Rachael made sure to taste every variety of wine before deciding on their purchase.
The Kuranda Scenic Railway took an hour and a half to do, not so much because of the distance but due to the drop of 328 metres from the top to the bottom. There was also a stop at the Barron Falls where we got a better view from the southern side of the Barron Gorge. The history and construction of the railway was interesting and there is an App available to listen to the commentary given on the journey down.
A bus trip from Freshwater Railway Station back to the car and we finished our day of Planes (well sort of – we were in the air), Trains and Automobiles (cars and buses).
I could no longer stand the pain of the gout in my foot. It has been over a week now and it has never lasted this long. I found a local doctor who has given me a course of steroids that he assures will cure me over three days. If not, I should have the strength of 10 men. It had better be on the mend by tomorrow as we head out onto the Barron River for some white water rafting.
