Kuranda

I had to drive pass the Skyrail many times on my previous stay in Cairns.  I was curious but didn't have enough time back then to take the ride.  So when I asked Spu what he wanted to do for our second day of adventure, he asked 'What's there to do in the Daintree forest?'  I said, 'It's a rainforest - not much.  It probably looks like any other rainforest in the area.'  So with that, we decided to go to kill two birds and check out the 'Skyrail Rainforest Cableway'.

We booked a tour which started with a ride up via the Skyrail cable car to the town of Kuranda.  We were given free time to explore the town and then a ride down back to Cairns aboard the Kuranda Scenic Railroad.

I will say one thing - This was frickin expensive.  A one way ticket on the Skyrail was $44!  What the hell, it's only 7.5km of cable and if you opt not to get off at the two stops and instead head directly to Kuranda, this ride would take about 30 minutes tops.  It definitely wasn't on the same level of value of when Moo and I each paid €41 (approx AU$51) to spend an entire day at Parc Asterix.  You could see why it wasn't teeming with tourists.   Is the money going towards conservation?  It better be.  Either that or it's paying off the debt incurred by it's construction.  

Spu in the cable car.  Me in the cable car.  Nice lush views.  

First stop - Red Peak.

Spuey enjoying the boardwalk path.  It felt just like the Daintree!

Treehugger.

Next stop - Barron Falls. 

The gorge/falls was not at it's peak today and the waterfall was more like a water trickle.  From the photos I've seen it looks pretty spectacular when in full force though.  Here at this stop was also a 'state of the art' interpretive centre, where the touch screen computers didn't really work and it more or less felt like a bad kiddie museum.  

Making our way to Kuranda, I crossed the Barron River.  So did Spu. 

Next stop - Kuranda.

Walking up the tree covered path to Kuranda - very nice!  Cooling too.  Spu never realised that trees could be so shady.  A dead amphibian.  Only in the tropics. 

The small community of Kuranda is fairly dependent on tourism with their markets selling plenty of souvenirs and knick knacks.  Good for people into that stuff.  Me and Spu?  Not so much.

Here's a store which has found it's niche between the kangaroo fur and hand made soap stalls - wine... derived from mangoes!  

Spu and I tasted everything Golden Drop had to offer.  All the alcohol was chilled so it all went down a  refreshing treat.  The mango-ey smell was a pleasant bonus on the nose.  I liked the cello least but I could have easily bought their entire range.  The main thing stopping me from doing so is that we didn't want to carry it and secondly ...maybe I should cut back on my alcohol??  So I just settled on a single bottle of the medium dry wine.  

Me and the miner. 

Spu and I decided to overload on tropical rainforests and followed Jum Rum Creek - Jungle - River walk nearby.

Creek pit stop. 

The walk brought us all the way back to Kuranda's train station where waited to board the next Kuranda Scenic Train down back to Cairns.  

All aboard the Hogwar...err. Kuranda Express!

Now at Barron Falls from the opposite side. 

The train curves around the mountain. 

I couldn't get a photo like this from the train, but this was the highlight of the ride.  

The train in total took three hours to get back to Cairns.  Not to undermine the significance of the train's history (it was built to shuttle miners up and down to Cairns) but after about an hour, the train ride got pretty damn boring.  Worse for Spuey, he sat on a seat which didn't get the window breeze (the train carriages weren't air-conditioned) and only realised so when we were about 15 minutes from Cairns!  He'd been sitting and sweating the whole time.  

We pulled into Cairns train station and after having a quick rest, we stuck to our promise of returning to Gunbaranba.

Spu had the cheesy ramen.  Yes it sounded a bit weird but that was part of it's appeal!  The flavours weren't conventional but it still worked!  I had one of the cold soup ramen.  Yum yum! 

Just to be extra greedy, we ordered a side of tuna salad and sushi rice.  They were just ok. 

That's it for the touristy stuff in Cairns.  Spu heads home tomorrow and I return to the work grind.  I'll kinda be glad to leave in a few days - it's nice to wake up in the morning without sweating!