Qld 09 - Week 2

Day 8 - Babinda -> Cairns

Leaving Babinda, we made a small detour into the foot of the Great Dividing Range to a National Park called 'The Boulders'. This area has lots of small streams running through the tropical rain forest.

A short walk downstream from here were giant boulders and the signs that flash floods were not uncommon. Further downstream were the remains of huge trees that had been ripped out by the water during the wet season.

I found the patterns carved into the rocks were fascinating.

As expected in a rain forest, there was lush growth everywhere. I wish the tree ferns in our back yard looked as healthy as this!

Today we got to Cairns and checked in to a caravan park. 'Free Camping' is fine, but we need to refill the water tanks and recharge the caravan battery every couple of days. While we do have a shower and toilet in the van, there's no substitute for a good mains pressure hot shower!

We took an evening stroll along the foreshore at Cairns and Sue found her biggest sea shell to date. I suggested it might be a bit big to bring home...

Day 9 - Cairns

Today was one of our excursion days. We were taking the train up the Barron Gorge to Kuranda, then back down to Cairns on the SkyRail cable car.

The railway line from Cairns to Kuranda was built between 1886 and 1891 and was done completely by hand. It climbs 1000ft in 21kms through the World Heritage Wet Tropical Rain Forest and has numerous tunnels and bridges to get through the steep terrain.

While the tunnels are original, fortunately the bridges are now all steel.

The engines are painted specially for the Kuranda Scenic Railway with colourful local aboriginal motifs.

The green carriages are for those travelling Gold Class with the comfy chairs. We figured we could live without the glass of wine and canapés at 9am!

As you climb into the mountains, you get sweeping views back across Cairns and out to the Coral Sea.

Kuranda station has long been known for its fantastic display of ferns and hanging gardens.

It's decidedly cooler and less humid in the mountains. We strolled along the main street and ended up at the Kuranda Market. Being a 'birdo', Sue couldn't resist a visit to the aviary. This had a brilliant collection of Australian parrots and other local and exotic birds flying freely around with the visitors.

Some of the plumage was beautiful. (For all the Monty Python fans - Cue the Norwegian Parrot sketch)

This is a Cassowary - a large flightless bird about the size of an Ostrich or Emu. It can get rather aggressive in the wild.

Cocky was NOT HAPPY and was letting everyone know it!

In the '60s and '70s, Kuranda was a very laid back sleepy town with a very high Hippie population (you can read that both ways!). It was said that all you had to do was step off the train and breathe in! These days, it's far more commercial, but still laid back. Breathing in this time did nothing but fill our lungs with clean tropical air.

We took the cable car back to Cairns for a different perspective of the Barron Gorge and surrounding rain forest.

In this picture, Sue is totally ignoring the Barron Falls on her right.

The SkyRail project was built to very strict guidelines as it goes over World Heritage rain forest areas. For this reason, the builders were prohibited from building any access roads during construction. Consequently all the cable pylons along the route were built off-site and positioned by helicopter. The 2 intermediate stations were built with materials being delivered the same way.

Day 10 - Cairns

Today was a 'domestic' day with washing, cleaning and shopping, then a trip to the local botanical gardens. The gardens have a special section for tropical species such as Heliconias, Orchids and Proteas. I will leave the identification of the flowers below as an exercise for the reader. :-)

On one side of Pt Douglas is the sea...

... while on the other is the river and marina.

The next stop was the Mossman Gorge. This is another scenic boulder-strewn river not unlike 'The Boulders' near Babinda.

Either side of the main river, small streams came through the forest to add to the flow.

We now headed for the Daintree River and the ferry crossing. This is starting to get into serious crocodile country and there were numerous signs warning of the hazards. There are two types of crocodiles in Australia - the freshwater and the estuarine (or saltwater). The freshwater is generally smaller and not very aggressive, but the saltwater crocodile can be a man-eater. In the last 30 years, there have been over 60 unprovoked attacks by saltwater crocodiles in Australia causing death or serious injury.

At the ferry ramp, there are the usual signs.

As this is a place where cassowaries run across the road (and they have NO road sense), there are signs for that, too. This one's been 'modified' a bit.

Finally, we reached the caravan park. There must be worse places to spend a day or two?

Day 12 - Cape Tribulation

Just a quiet day today with a trip on the Daintree in an electric boat. It looked like it had come off the set of the African Queen but without the chimney. Why electric? Well, you can glide around silently and not disturb the birds (or crocodiles).

The rain forest here comes right down to and overhangs the river.

It hides a multitude of creatures...

This is a female about 2 metres long.

This is another female, slightly longer at about 2.5 metres (but obviously shy). We never got to see the resident Alpha male, 'Fat Albert' who comes in at a respectable 5 metres.

Day 13 - Cape Tribulation - Atherton Tablelands

Today we were leaving the tropical rain forest behind and driving South-West into the cooler and less humid climate of the Atherton Tablelands. These are West of Cairns and are about 2500~3000ft above sea level. There are pockets of rain forest up there. Nothing grabbed my camera's attention, so it must have been a dull drive. :-)

Day 14 - Atherton Tablelands

Another cleaning and shopping day, followed by a drive to the Curtain Fig. This is a type of strangler fig and the curtain is about 50ft tall. It's very impressive, but rather hard to photograph. :-(

We drove passed a school on the way back to the caravan park. It would seem that athletic excellence triumphs over scholastic achievements (like spelling)...

Continue on to Week Number 3 -> Qld 09 - Week 3