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October 3, 2009 - Kuranda Train, Kuranda, SkyRail, and Tjupaki!
On this trip, we have experienced pretty much every mode of transportation: cars, 4WD SUV, 4WD tourist coach, buses, subways/monorails, trains, planes, ships, sky cable cars, and trolleys. We could be in a remake of the movie classic Trains, Planes and Automobilles!
So today, we were off on a great tour! We were picked up at 7:45 and driven to the Fairweather Station. Once there, we were checked in and given our tickets for the train. We were in carriage 9, seats 45-48. The Kuranda Scenic Train was something that Australians we met in Alice Springs were telling us we really must do. And that was lucky for us as we had booked this trip months ago. The train ride took about 1 1/2 hours to take us from Freshwater Station to the village of Kuranda. We drove through rain forest (which was fun to drive though, but probably even prettier during the rainy season). Here are some photos from our train journey.
Melissa looking out of the train.
At one point, we were on Horse Shoe Bend. We could see the front of the train and the back of it! Note all of the people with their cameras out of the window taking pictures of other parts of the train!
This is one of the photos of Barren Falls. These falls are spectacular during the rainy season. But locals here say that this is the driest Dry they remember and there wasn't much water flowing today. But still it was spectacular.
The train track we followed had 15 tunnels that had been carved by hand 100 years ago. It was and is quite an achievement considering that it not only went through the mountains, but the jungles as well.
We got off the train in Kuranda. This is basically a touristy stop. There were shops, several cafes, and zoo type places (a butterfly place, a bird place, a place to pet and hold koalas...you get the picture. We had about 2 hours to look around. The kids and I went to the Butterfly Sanctuary. We figured we had seen koalas and lots of birds, but not so many butterflies. Daniel took a jungle walk first, then went to see the Butterfly Sanctuary later. On his jungle walk he found a friend, but you'll have to visit What To Fix to find out what he saw.
Anyway, taking photos of butterflies is tough! They don't often stay still long enough for you to focus on them. But I did get a few that turned out well, I thought.
Next, we went to the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. This was about a 7.5 km ride over the tops of the rainforest between Kuranda and Cairns. We had to switch cable cars about 3/4 of the way through and during the switch, we got out and took a short walk into the rainforest. Here are some of the best pictures from that part of our day.
After our ride on the Skyrail, we were ushered into a restaurant in the Tjapukai Aboriginal Village for a buffet lunch. The chicken cacciatore and fish with dill sauce was awesome. The desserts were amazing as well...rum balls, chocolate orange mousse, creme brulee, and more. Anyway, after lunch, we began our tour of the Aboriginal Village. It started with a performance in the dance theater, then we got to try spear throwing and throwing the boomerang, and then we learned about bush foods and medicines and about the didgeridoo. Lastly, we saw the Aboriginal Creation story and a short film touching on the aboriginal history. The whole afternoon was very interesting and information. I have a couple of photos below. I also have videos, and will try to up load them. We are having a hard time here uploading videos though.
Showing how to start a fire with two sticks and a clump of dry grass.
A kangaroo with two hunters closing in.
For more photos from our day in Kuranda and Tjapuki, you can visit me on Flickr.
