Cairns is like the gateway to the far north Queensland tropics - you can fly in from most capital cities in Australia and use it as a launching pad to explore the nearby Great Barrier Reef or hire a car and take a road trip up the coast or into the hinterland. Cairns itself was kinda like a really mini version of Surfers Paradise (complete with hundreds of junky souvenir shops and Japanese tourists) and although I'd heard about the Cairns foreshore, I still didn't believe that there was no actual beach in Cairns, until I saw the mudflats complete with crocodile warning signs, myself.
But one thing that every Cairns tourist should do, is visit Kuranda - not by road, but by Skyrail or scenic railway or both! Yeah, it's pricey (A combo ticket for a ride in a Skyrail gondola and then a trip on the historic Kuranda Scenic Railway will set you back $80 per adult - Phew! I know!) but it's a great way to see some truly beautiful rainforest and the little town of Kuranda in the Cairns mountains.
We caught the Skyrail over to Kuranda (it's an impressive 7.5km long with two stops along the way where you can get off and do a few short bushwalks) and the views were beautiful.
If we had our day again though, we would have caught the train to the town of Kuranda and the Skyrail back - only because you can get on and off the Skyrail whenever you want, but the train only departs at two specific times in the afternoon which you book in the morning before your trip. We chose the 3:30pm ride home, but after wandering around the souvenir shops and tacky tourist traps in Kuranda, we wished we could have come back earlier! Kuranda was once an alternative town, but now, it's pretty much a town built on this tour - with markets that are permanently set up and selling overpriced Chinese junk. There wasn't a handmade or locally produced product in sight!
Except for the delicious German lunch that we had at a traditional cafe complete with music straight out of Euro Vision! It was a classic! Check out the beef and cheese sausage with onion and sauerkraut that we threw in our gobs faster than you can say dahnk-uh shoon! Hmmm!
Oh and after lunch, Luke ran into his long lost brother whilst we were walking around in town...
When it was finally time to catch our train back to Cairns, I was so excited! I felt like we were boarding the Hogworts Express!
The train gently winds it's way down the mountains and through 15 man made tunnels while passing waterfalls and thick rainforest. It's takes about an hour and a half and this includes a stop at the Barron Falls lookout, and there's a guy recorded on a loud speaker, who has a voice a lot like the man from the movie The Man From Snowy River, who tells you all about the amazing history of the railway.
What a great day!
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