Glenn Family Travels: In the rainforest! Cairns Landing

We landed in Cairns (actually Yorkey's Knob...what does that mean exactly?) and took a great side trip to historic Kuranda.

Kuranda is the ancestral home of the Djabugay people. Unusual, but the Djabugay people still own these lands which is rather rare. Very unfortunately, indigenous peoples generally lose their land when the Europeans come....it's been true everywhere. Despite concerted efforts in Australia, the land repatriation effort begun in the 1970's has still not been ratified. As a practical matter, this generally does not work and will possibly fail here as well.

Anyway, we hopped off the ship and took a quick coach ride to the rail head of the Kuranda Scenic Railway. This is quite a treat and should you find yourself here, don't miss the trip. Authentic older carriages take you on a 90 minute ride to Kuranda with terrific rain forest and waterfall views.

The Scenic railway was built between the years 1887 - 1891 with the goal of linking the rich gold mining regions to the Ocean port. Torrential rains made most trails impassible and more permanent solution was required. Many workers lost their lives building this railway and certainly should be considered an impressive engineering achievement.

Again, views are outstanding and well worth the effort.

Kuranda Village is a very cool town that has a "alternative" feel to it. This makes sense as it was considered a haven for hippies back in teh 1970's. Lots of arts and crafts and good places to eat and drink. Pat and I had a great BBQ chicken pizza and a couple of VB's (Vistoria Bitters) for lunch there.

The way back down to Smithfield was by Skyrail which is a suspended cable car that takes you on a 7 KM ride over and through the canopy. This also worth doing but not inexpensive ($55 AUD per person) but still worth the fare. Built in just one year (after a 13 year environmental impact study) the Skyrail was built with supplies flown in by helicopter. This minimized the damage to the rainforest. According to our guide, the protesters of the project actually created more damage when they hiked in each day to voice their opinion :)

Back on the ship and next stop is Brisbane. Our plans there are to visit a Koala preserve that allows close contact with the animals....this is something that Pat cannot miss!

That's all for now!