Kuranda

Today we did a Kuranda tour.

First we travelled up to Kuranda on the Skyrail - a gondola lift up the gorge, with two rainforest stops on the way (basically it's just too far for one gondola - something like 7 km). So we saw the tops of the forest, and under the canopy, and saw all sorts of epiphytes (our new word for the day). These are plants, largely ferns, which grow on trees, but are not parasites - they take no nutrient from their hosts, just a place to live. Anyway, a lot of the trees had ferns up and down their stems, or growing out of their tops. Really rather cool.

Once we reached the top we were in the little tourist village of Kuranda, which was filled with cafes, shops, markets, galleries, etc. It was previously a hippy village in the 70s, and prior to that a cooler spot in the mountains for the locals to vacation. We had a good rainforest village lunch - we went to an Irish pub and had steak and guiness pie, washed down by a Giuness. We wandered through town for awhile, and did a little shopping.

Our little tour was completed by a ride down the gorge on the Kuranda Scenic Railway. The train was originally built for mining, but is now a great tourist attraction, and uses old railway cars (not very comfy, but very atmospheric). This took 90 minutes - old trains are slow. Lots of scenic vistas, interspersed with tunnels hand dug through the rock. The photo is the Barron Falls taken from the train - apparently the falls are huge during the rainy season, but they are still picturesque this time of year.

Another entertaining day.