Day 5: Friday, August 12 The Bush, Back Roads, Sky Rail, Kuranda and Train
Finally a day with multiple highlights (and one mammoth disappointment). Dinner was once again a major highlight especially since all I had eaten all day was a sandwich early in the morning. Same place, same meal as the previous night but I ate even more. I didn't really keep track but I know that I had more than two dozen oysters, more shrimp than that, quite a few "yabbi yabbi", lots of crab and a few mussels. The mussels weren't very good - they were hard to open, tough and had a strange taste. Mussels are probably my least favourite of the cold seafood anyway so it wasn't a great hardship to just eat more shrimp.
The morning began somewhat confusing as one bus picked me up (again five minutes early) and then I had to change to another. All of the people on the last bus were doing different things in the afternoon so the driver kept running over the schedule to make sure he had it straight. We began by climbing (in the bus of course) one of the "mountains" near Cairns, stopped at a look out where I was surprised to see just how spread out and large Cairns is. Soon we were off the paved road and on to an old logging trail that twisted and wound its way through the rainforest. In places the road was wet clay and extremely slippery but the driver was excellent and even seemed to have fun going through the worst places. He was also very knowledgeable and had obviously studied botany or worked in the filed for a long time. This was very much an "eco" tour. When I lit a cigarette he came over to me and said, "Nothing on the ground" (even though I was standing in a pile of butts) and brought me a film canister in which to save the butts.
Morning tea was at a kiosk deep in the national forest and we could have whatever we wanted from the very limited menu. I had a ham and cheese sandwich though I could neither find or taste the cheese. I've discovered that when all you eat for dinner is seafood you don't stay full very long and I was hungry. The sandwich was anything but great but it did hold me over for the rest of the day until dinner.
The entire morning was spent driving through the bush stopping periodically for short walks off the road and to listen to the driver explain various and sundry things (poisonous plants <80% of the fruits of Australian plants are toxic to humans>, cassowary manure, termite mounds, more strangling figs, etc.) There are so many termites around Cairns that houses made primarily of timber have to be inspected, at considerable cost, every three months. Various solutions have been attempted but apparently none is fool proof at a reasonable cost or effort. A good portion of the morning was similar to what I had seen and heard the previous day but it was from a different perspective and so was every bit as interesting.
Shortly after noon I was dropped off at the Sky Rail station for my trip to Kuranda. Thus began the second highlight of the day. The Sky Rail travels on cables above the rain forest, up and over several mountain ranges and over the valleys between. The views from the gondola are spectacular. I had a gondola to myself the entire way so could see easily in all directions. At times you are more than 340 meters above the ground and most of the time you can't see the ground. Not for the faint of heart or those who dislike heights but I loved it! When you pull into the station your picture is automatically taken before you get out of the gondola. I will scan it and add it to the rest in due course.
As I headed for the train station to pick up my ticket for the ride back to Cairns I bumped into a woman who had been on the same tour I was the previous day. I'm not sure who was more surprised. We talked and compared notes for a couple of minutes and then went our separate ways. Once in Kuranda it didn't take me long to determine that the place held no appeal for me whatsoever because it contains nothing but one tourist shop after another the entire length of the main street and some of the side streets. Obviously the place has no other reason for being. I think that the appeal is getting there on the Sky Rail or train and then the ride back.
I went into "Bird World" but wasn't too impressed there either because getting decent pictures was too difficult and it was hotter than Hades. Not to mention the constant fear of being crapped upon. Unfortunately my camera wasn't working properly and I didn't know it until I got back to the hotel so I don't have any good photos from there at all. By the time I came out there wasn't enough time to go to any of the other attractions so I headed back toward the train station. Of course I got turned around on the round about and ended up going the wrong way. When I couldn't figure it out, in spite of the fact that I had two maps, I stopped at a shop and asked for directions. The shopkeeper turned out to be a transplanted Vancouverite! Amazing.
The return trip was on the Kuranda Scenic Railway in an old refurbished car. It is a slow but very scenic trip lasting an hour and a half or so. I spent much of the time chatting with a couple from Brisbane and learned that they felt the same was I about Kuranda.
I was back at the hotel by around 5:30 and a half hour to kill until I called the fishing boat skipper to find out the pick up time for the following morning. I called him right on the dot art 6:00 only to be told that we would not be going because there was a wind warning out for the day. I was crushed as this was to have been one of the main highlights of the trip. I went down to the tour desk in the lobby and the concierge suggested that I try river or estuary fishing instead. I assumed that they too would be cancelled but such is not the case. Unfortunately for me the river fishing was fully booked. Strike two but third time lucky the estuary trip is now booked with a 7:00 am pick up time. It is only a half day adventure but you can do it twice if you enjoy it and want to go again (space permitting of course). I only booked it for a half day and will see how that goes.