Adventures of Luck of a Fool: October 7, 2023 Train to Kuranda, Australia through the rainforest

We overslept this morning, but still made it to our bus stop in 45 minutes to go to the train station. "The Kuranda scenic railway is an iconic rail journey that meanders it's way through the World Heritage-listed rain forest of the Barron Gorge National Park to the quaint mountain village of Kuranda" at the elevation of 1083'. There were 15 handmade tunnels and over 55 bridges. It was originally opened in 1891. "Up to 1500 men at a time armed only with handpicks, shovels and dynamite carved through mountainous and unforgiving landscape to construct the 33 km of track." It was built to find a reliable supply route to the gold mining fields in the mountains.

We boarded the train at the Cairns train station. I have included a map of the train ride. I know it would be hard to read the information, but you can see the train track up the mountain. We departed at 8:50 am and arrive in Kuranda about 10:30 am. The view was amazing. We went through several tunnels. We could see Stoney Creek Falls from the train. The bridge in front of the falls was the "most outstanding feature of the railway line."

our first view of sugar cane

Stoney Creek Falls

Stoney Creek Falls from across a valley showing the bridge

view back towards the ocean

"Robb's monument is an impressive rock formation that was left during the building of the railway and serves as a monument to John Robb's engineering prowess." It was hard to get a decent photo while on the move.

Robb's Monument

At Barron Falls station, we stopped for a photo opportunity. The falls are 327 meters above sea level and drop 265 meters. I noticed several people with University of Minnesota name tags (my alma mater). I approached one of them and introduced myself. This was a tour group of alumni of the UofM on an AUS/NZ tour. Later, in Kuranda, we ran into him again. The wife of the couple with him had been a college room mate of a class mate of mine in dental school. Small world. We had to have a photo to send to her. The tour group had just arrived in Sydney the day before and hit the ground running. They were looking a bit tired as we crossed paths throughout the day.

Ann and Dave Brown from MN

We arrived in Kuranda and walked into town to have lunch and shop. Very touristy town, but someone had given us a recommendation of a restaurant away from the train station, Frog's restaurant. We had an appetizer of emu, crocodile and kangaroo. They were ok, not something we will crave. I had crocodile and apple curry, which was good. Dave had mutton curry, which wasn't as good. But fun to try different dishes. Interesting decor.

mutton curry

crocodile curry

We had until 1:30 to board the skyrail back to Cairns. I walked through a few shops while Dave waited comfortably for me. There were a couple aboriginals playing a didgeridoo. That was fun to see/hear. There were other tourist attractions available, but we passed on those.

The skyrail return was about a 40 minute ride with 2 stops along the way. The Barron Falls stop was interesting to see from the opposite side of the gorge.

in the skyrail gondola

Barron Falls

The Red Peak Station had a nice boardwalk through the rain forest with informational signs. One sign explained the "epiphytes" or giant fern baskets that form in the branches of trees, which we had noticed. They also mentioned that the baskets capture leaf litter and water, so insects and animals live in the baskets. A common inhabitant is the juvenile python. We had read the sign and moved on a ways. Dave noticed some other people reading the sign. When they finished he looked up and said "that snake is going to fall on somebody". Of course he got the reaction he was looking for when they all looked up above them.

the tram station at Red Peak

We disembarked at the Smithfield Terminal to catch a bus back to our hotel. Of course they left you a little time to shop in their gift shop. There was a display with a Cassowary, a large flightless bird native to northeastern Australia. They are the 3rd tallest and 2nd heaviest birds in the world, after ostriches and emus.

Back at our hotel, Dave made "toasties" for dinner, a toasted ham and cheese sandwich, after I took an uber to church. The stain glass window was made in 1994 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea near the end of WWII. We were intrigued by the many references we saw to WWII. We hadn't thought about their involvement, but they are much closer to Japan than we are.