Today's trip is by a scenic railway from Cairns into the Kuranda Rainforest and with a couple of stops the ride should take around 90 mins.
The train station is about 20 mins walk from our apartment and access via a shopping centre, except once inside the centre the signage was sparse and then disappeared completely once it dumped us in a multi storey car park. Lucky for us a passing chap worked for the railway and offered directions to the ticket office.
We had pre bought out tickets in England and although the carriage was fairly empty we took our allocated seats and were assured it would fill up at the next stop.
The train has 15 carriages and a highly decorated engine and the driver kindly invited Ian to climb into the engine room but I seem to have lost the picture!
Just after crossing across this bridge was Stoney Creek Falls.
Part of the monolith known as Robb's monument dedicated to railway's contractor John Robb who began its construction in 1887.
The next falls were Barron Falls where we were able to get off the train and walk to a viewing platform.
Looking back to the train in the Halt.
The falls were very nice but having seen Iguassu, Victoria and recently Murchison they didn't overly impress us.
Once we arrived at Kuranda Station we did the 15 min walk to Bird World (via a pasty shop - don't ask me why but I was starving). We were then picked up by coach and driven approx 15 mins to Rainforestation National Park where had a chance to walk around the wildlife park (aka zoo) whilst waiting for our duck tour to depart.
But at last we saw a kookaburra
And a dingo
Red Wallaby
This croc is known as Jack the Ripper although from this angle he looks totally toothless.
A wombat sitting too close to the glass of its enclosure.
And a couple of rather sweet Koalas
A few plants, none of which are native to Australia and mainly come from South America.
Urceolina amazonica (Amazon Lily)
Etlingera elatior (Torch Lily) which we've seen the world over.
Costus barbatus a Costa Rican native which I've just read is critically endangered.
Heliconia latispatha
It was now time for our Army Duck ride. There are 12 of these 6
wheeled amphibious vehicles at the rainforestation. Built in WWII the design was conceived to
ferry men (30) and cargo from ship to beach in the Pacific.
There were some amazing tree ferns.
And epiphytes
Strangely enough I can photograph Orb spiders despite my arachnophobia.
Our driver was very entertaining and kept us all laughing, probably in an attempt to disguise the fact that there is very little to see, although he did point out some of the most aggressive plants like Gympie-Gympie (Dendrocnide (meaning tree stinger) moroides) which is to be avoided because of its incredibly painful sting, delivered by hairs that inject a neurotoxin. A casual split-second touch on an arm by a leaf or stem is enough to induce pain for hours or days and in some cases the pain has been reported to last for weeks. A Gympie-Gympie sting feels like fire at first and then subsides over hours to a pain reminiscent of having the affected body part caught in a slammed car door. A final stage called allodynia occurs for days after the sting, during which innocuous activities such as taking a shower or scratching the affected skin reignites the pain.
These cameras were strategically placed to take photos which were then offered for sale at the end of the ride.
A couple of places were quite picturesque but there really wasn't much to see.
Someone spotted this baby turtle, species unknown, in the murky water.
Next was a Pamagirri Aboriginal Experience which apparently highlights the Gimuy-walubarra yidi people's traditions and involved spear and boomerang throwing, but firstly a couple of dances.
This young lad was gorgeous and clearly loved being involved in the performance.
Incidentally there were also a couple of "European" looking people involved in the dances who looked totally out of place but I'm assuming they had the appropriate cultural qualifications.
Spear throwing next.
And finally didgeridoo playing.
The final part of the day package was a cable car ride back down. Ian is fine with these now having successfully been on them in Switzerland (couldn't see a thing it was so misty) and Cape Town (fabulous views but very short/quick). What we didn't realise is that it took about an hour plus two stops for changing pods.
We passed directly over Barron Falls
Our second stop to change pods was at Red Peak which has a 250m rainforest boardwalk and they offer a 15 min ranger guided tour. Fortunately for us we were there in time for the last tour of the day and although the information was more or less what we'd heard on the army duck it was a pleasant short walk.
Where there are concrete paths they are invariably decorated with something topical; like this palm fan.
I took this whilst we were waiting for the ranger and was very excited about all the things we might see.
But unfortunately all we spotted was another Golden Orb spider.
This angle shows off its intricate web.
I think this is Calamus moti, but whatever its name it looks jolly vicious.
Getting on/off the cable car was similar to Switzerland, you just had to launch yourself as it didn't actually stop.
There were apparently tree kangaroos to be seen but we didn't spot anything, not even a pigeon and after the initial novelty of being above the tree line wore off it was rather boring.
The coach we were booked on to take us back to Cairns Railway Station was unfortunately running late but to make up for it the driver offered to drop people off near where they were staying and so saved us a 20 min walk. It was so kind of him and I just cannot imagine that happening in England where it's more likely he'd have been rude and grumpy because of working unpaid overtime.