Kuranda North Queensland 

Episode 3

The next day was Sunday and I had booked to go on Ye Olde Train trip up to Kuranda, a small city set in the mountains inland from Cairns.  In fact, Ye Olde Train was, in fact, far  less delightful than the trains from Shorncliffe, Brisbane, which were my daily ride to school and work.   These elegant, somewhat shabby, antique, carriages were right out of a Western movie, but we didn’t even like them, admire them or appreciate them.  Who needs fancy woodwork and real leather seats  and real mirrors when you are being pulled along by a coal fuelled train, manned with real train drivers  and genuine men, who shovelled coal into them to keep them movin’ along…..

 I came back from Kuranda via the Sky Rail , in gondolas , over the top of the rainforest.  This Skyrail journey was seven and a half kilometres long, across the tops of  the mountains (the Atherton Tablelands, I think). I loved every minute of the ride – we went right over the tops of the trees, over huge mountains and gorges, waterfalls and lakes, then a spectacular ride to the getting-off point , which must have been a couple of kilometres.

The following day, Monday, I was due to fly to Gove in the afternoon, so I had to fill in Monday morning.  I took a boat ride around Cairns Harbour, what a load of junk that was.  Really, all the commentator had to describe were the naval patrol boats moored at the wharves and you can imagine how interesting that was.  And four or five different types of mangrove trees growing along the muddy reaches of “the harbour”.  At least we saw a couple of lonely crocodiles sunning themselves on the banks, and I overheard a nice little story being recounted by the boat driver to one of his friends—he was telling him that, in the week before, a tour operator had taken a load of tourists over to Green Island (a tourist resort) and had dropped them off.  The tourists came running back, saying there were crocodiles on the beach. The tour operator said “rubbish” and went and checked anyway, and, sure enough, some crocodiles had escaped from a nearby crocodile farm and were marching up the tourist beach….

All in all, I got the impression that Cairns is a nice little northern city .   I think they must have a great public relations team working for them, as the ads we see here in New Zealand are about a vibrant, exciting city, with lots to see and do. I didn’t get to any of the resorts, which judging by their photos, are truly great holiday places, in fact , tropical paradise.