Had to set the alarm this morning to be up 30 minutes earlier than usual! As it was we both woke up 1 minute before the alarm. After breakfast we went to reception and waited for our coach.
Today we were taking a train ride up to Kuranda, a trip up the mountain through the rain forest. Then back down via cable car. Again, I’ll take the easy way out and dump some pictures on you.
We were dropped off at Freshwater Station which is over 100 years old, and gets its name from the fact that this was the first point on the line that fresh water was available for the workers.
The engines used on this line have all been hand painted by local native people
On the train we met a couple of young girls on vacation from Arnproir and Carleton Place, about 25km West of Ottawa!
Next are a series of photos taken on the trip up, there were meant to be many magnificent water falls but the drought has left them pretty dry.
Part of the steepest ascent was engineered by John Robb, the workers left a piece of un-excavated rock as a monument to him. More can read here if you are interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairns-to-Kuranda_railway_line
Off in the distance we could see our transport down
At the summit we got off the train at the hot and humid village of Kuranda to be met by a Bird of Paradise
It’s a bit hard to see from the picture, but the seat is made from old railway lines.
These trees with their above ground roots always amaze me.
We heard the sounds of the didgeridoo as we walked along the street and just assumed it was a CD playing in one of the stores, in fact it was one of the locals playing the real thing.
They don’t like to destroy trees if they don’t have to!
As we expected the village was very much a tourist attraction with many of the stores selling the same articles. We did however manage to get most of our outstanding shopping done.
I was surprised to see a crashed aircraft off the side of the road! Originally it was the first aircraft to run a scheduled flight for the forerunner of what is today Australia’s national airline QANTAS, back in 1946. After been sold a number of times it was bought for use in a film where it found its final resting place.
As I said earlier our trip down would be by cable car. The total journey would be approx 8km, run by two systems. The first run was 4.5km and the second 3.5km. Below are some views.
The final shot is of a water park. One of the activities is water skiing, but there are no boats. Around the perimeter of the lake are a series of pylons supporting moving ropes. The skier hangs onto the rope and does his thing. The white objects in the water are jumps for skiers and boarders.
Tomorrow is our underwater day on the reef.
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