SKYRAIL AND KURANDA SCENIC RAILWAY AND VILLAGE

Today we had a bit of a break in that we didn’t have to leave our “accommodation” until 10:15 am when the bus picked us up for Kuranda Scenic Railway and Skyrail Tour.

We arrived at the Skyrail Tour around 11:30 am. This will take us up this huge mountain to the Kuranda Village – supposedly the “Original” Kuranda Markets. This was once the path through the mountains to the goldfields. Kuranda is in the middle of a rainforest (yes, another one) and the Skyrail is the longest rainforest cab leway in the world.

What makes this entire thing rather comical is that I hate heights – what was I thinking in signing us up for this. So I sucked it up and bravely entered the cable car saying to myself “this will not be that bad”. Sam and I both sat in the car facing forward – or toward the mountain so that we would see up instead of “down” toward Cairns. Surprisingly enough I was good. NOT Sam he was miserable the entire trip and it takes over an hour to get from the bottom of this mountain to the village. Mostly he sat with his eyes squeezed shut. He did open then a few times when I said “wow that is so pretty” looked briefly and went back to squeezing them shut. So he says “ you know I’m not fond of these cable cars” and I did not dare laugh he was just too terrified. There were two stops where you could get off and look around and then board the next cable car and continue. We got on the first but not the second one – he said “let’s just get this over with”. We missed Barron Falls which now I understand is really awesome. At the end of the trip, they take your photo in the cable car with the rainforest digitally imposed on it. We got off the car and I burst into laughter as the photo shows Sam with this abject look of terror. I had to buy it. I plan to scan it and send out to a few friends and family. You will love it.

We walked about the village had a bite of lunch. We finally did some shopping – bought some Koala Bears (stuffed of course) a kangaroo, and some Christmas ornaments, few tee shirts. Then it was time to head to the railway station.

The trip down is in a restored 1800 railway car and goes down the same route that has been in existence for over 100 years. Very interesting but don’t look over the side because there is no where to go but DOWN. It was fun though.

We arrived back at the station and the bus brought us back to Port Douglas. Sam made some steaks on the grill (there is a grill in the pool area) and we had baked potatoes again and some bread. Of I forgot, I discovered the local bakery this morning. Thank god I didn’t find it earlier or they would need to bring in cranes to bring us both back to Sydney.

After dinner we relaxed in our private Jacuzzi in the courtyard and I did laundry in preparation of the trip back to Sydney tomorrow.

Our time here is at an end and it has been wonderful. Now onto the city – the country has been fantastic and we both loved it.

Tomorrow is a travel day and I may not post since packing and flying to another city is not terribly interesting.

Later everyone,
Sam and Char