Click to Zoom Kuranda Scenic Railway

Cyclone season starts today!!  You'd never know it by the beautiful weather we've had in Cairns!  It gets hot and the sun is hot but it seems so cool with breezes and compared to where we've been.  We headed for Kuranda today on the Cairns-Kurnada Railway.  The tracks were laid between 1882 and 1891 and was an engineering feat of tremendous magnitude, costing many lives.  The workers literally moved mountains with strategy, fortitude, hand tools, dynamite, buckets and bare hands.   Numbers of tunnels were carved into the mountains and every bit was removed by hand.  The completion of the railway was what opened up the tablelands here.   Vast rainforests were cleared to allow farming and grazing. With "progress" so much is lost in the environment!!  The ride was beautiful with breathtaking views.  The cars we rode in were very old, having once served for transportation from Cairns to Brisbane.  When the new Queenslander line went in with modern cars these were retired for this jaunt.  One could feel the history riding in them.  Kuranda is a village up in the rainforest that is primary for tourists. It's a vehicle for learning about the area and made for a fun day.  We had free time to tour the little village but it wasn't long enough.  Always choices to be made and things have to be left out.  We went to the Butterfly Sanctuary and thoroughly enjoyed those little fluttering creatures.  The Ulysses Butterfly is BRIGHT blue but when it lands it promptly folds it's wings together.  We tried to get a picture but that is a challenge.  Next we made our way to the Rainforestation Nature Park.  The 40 hectares of land there was some of the land cleared for farming.  It was a large coffee plantation at one time.  The owners are committed to reforesting and preserving.  The park is there now of course with rainforest areas preserved.   What they do grow are Eucalyptus trees.  It takes one half kilo a day of Eucalyptus leaves per Koala Bear.  They also have to go into the State Forest to get more! We had the unique experience of riding in an amphibious army duck here.  They were the vessels built exclusively by women in Detroit between 1941-1944 and used in the war to transport men onto land.  There were 22,000 made and the life of them in war was 18-20 days.  There was a fleet of eight of them here that were bought as surplus out of Papa New Guinea.  They took us up into the rain forest and then back into the park.... part of the trip was on hard ground and part in water.  The water area was from the irrigation system used at one time for the coffee plantation.  Those ducks can move!  I was most appreciative that our driver had a directed path and not much straightaway.  You had to hold on tight not to get bounced out!!  They weigh 6 1/2 tons and the tires can be inflated and deflated.  A tire can take 22 bullets before the compressor can't keep up with filling it. They don't get that kind of a test much anymore.   The only weapons we saw here were some Aboriginal spears.

Click to Zoom What a view!!

In the rain forest we saw so many basket ferns.  They are fascinating.  They again start as a seed up in the tree.  They begin to grow just using the tree as a host.  They are not parasites.  They collect leaves etc., which decompose and  form soil as they continue to grow in size.  They are 25 degrees centigrade in the middle when it's cold outside.  Lots of critters use them as homes and places to get warm.  They advertise them as having a penthouse view with central heating!  When it rains they suck up a great deal of water.  In strong storms they will weigh so much that when the tree sways it can snap off at the point of the basket.  They are just huge!  We saw some that were every bit of fifty years old.  Fungi grow all through the rainforest of course.  We saw some bracket fungi that were saucers as big as the lid of a garbage can.

We were served an Australian "Barbie" for lunch.   These folks are "meat eaters!."  We had a wonderful open air area to eat that overlooked the nature park.  From there we went to see the Pamagirri Aboriginal Dancers perform and then they led us on a "dreamtime walk" telling us about their culture.  We all had a chance to try our skill with a boomerang!   They did a spear throwing demonstration.  The more I learn about these peoples the more I respect them.  It's terribly sad to see how "lost" the culture is for them today.  They played the didgeridoo for us which is always fascinating.   We went through the nature center and actually got to hug one of those precious Koalas.  I wasn't coming this far without doing that!!  There were kangaroos and wallabies for us to see up close and pet as well.  We saw wombats and pythons too..... some things you don't want to really see in the wild!!

We returned to Cairns by way of the Skyrail that took us up and over the Rainforest.  Once again we had breathtaking views!  At seven and a half kilometers it is the world's longest sky tram. We've not had a bad experience here yet!!.... We took in the free dinner the hostel provides and then wandered back here.   It is amazing how these towns come to life at night and stay that way till the wee wee hours of the morning! No fear about moving around town at night.  The backpackers are a major industry in Australia.  In Cairns they are 48 percent of the tourists.   There are so many discounts and programs that are available to them.  It's a wonderful system for kids to see the country (and even some of us "old" folks). Andrew will have a ball the next few months.