Above the treetops

(Backdated)

Saturday morning, and more family arrived to join us at our hotel in Cairns.

Then we convened a couple of streets away at the Mad Monkey Village backpackers. (There are multiple Mad Monkey backpackers in Cairns, so if you ever have to find one of them, be sure you know precisely which one.)

It was raining a bit, but it was warm rain, not the winter rain Melburnians are used to. Our transfer coach arrived… with all-over advertising; never good, but particularly odd for a coach for tourists who might want to be able to see out through the windows, I thought.

The coach took us to Smithfield, home of the Kuranda Skyrail, with the bus driver’s pronunciation of our destination being somewhat enlightening: not Kur-an-da, but simply Kranda.

This type of Skyrail is a cable car, in two sections – one from Smithfield to Red Peak, another from Red Peak to Kuranda (with an optional intermediate stop at Barron Falls).

Like Melbourne’s Skyrail (elevated railway lines) it was initially controversial – my stepfather (who lived near Cairns around the time it was built) has said some people objected to the construction in what was pristine rainforest. But also like Melbourne’s Skyrail, it went ahead, and is now part of the furniture.

After queuing for a while to board, we started the first part of the ride. There’s a fairly rapid ascent up the mountain, and some spectacular views from above the rainforest canopy.

There also was a lot of fog and mist, and at one stage most of the view was shrouded by it – also spectacular but in a different way.

After about 15 minutes we arrived at Red Peak to look around. Wisely they have big umbrellas you can use, as it was raining. Well, it is a rainforest after all.

Back onto the next leg to Barron Falls, with another stop there to see the falls. Again, spectacular.

Then the final leg into Kuranda. It did not escape my notice that the Skyrail people clean the window right at the end of the ride… just in time for an automated camera to take your photo which they then aim to sell to you.

But it was still fun, and great to see the rainforest up close.

Kuranda is a little town surrounded by rainforest, and fully geared up for tourists, with food and drink venues and groovy shops to buy local produce or art and crafts.

We found some lunch, then explored the town.

Eventually we headed to the railway station – an actual railway station, not a cable car station – for the 3:30pm train back into Cairns.

The station opened in 1891. The town and the railway have long been a tourist attraction, and in fact I have an old photo of the station from about 1955, probably taken by my Uncle Frank on a trip there.

This “Kuranda Scenic Railway” is run by Queensland Rail, but it’s squarely aimed at tourists. There are two trips from Cairns to Kuranda in the morning, and two back again in the afternoon.

I assume they have at least two separate train sets, and the trains are quite long – I think ours was something like 15 vintage wooden carriages, hauled by two diesel engines.

Unlike say QR’s every day utilitarian services, the KSR makes a stop at Barron Falls station – which overlooks the falls – to let passengers climb out for ten minutes to take photos.

There’s a second stop at Freshwater station to drop off some tourists to their coach connections to further north – our morning coach driver had emphasised that we should not attempt to climb off there and take photos, as it’s only a short stop. Apparently some people have in the past, and found themselves stuck with no more trains that day, public buses few and far between, and taxis to Cairns difficult to find, and pretty expensive.

The train rolled down the hills, with many tunnels and several bridges along the way, and some great scenery.

Eventually we got back into Cairns, heading back to the hotel with a short detour to get some groceries at the adjacent Cairns Central Shopping Centre – built on the site after rail infrastructure at the station was rationalised.

After a rest we headed out for dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant – al fresco dining in July – not a great idea back in Melbourne, especially after dark – before retiring.

Tomorrow we’d start to get to the real reason for the trip.