Today was a big day. We left the hotel around 8:30 this morning and headed northwest of Cairns about 20 miles to the Kuranda Rainforest area. We took about a 10 mile ride up Barron Gorge in a cable car, which took about 90 minutes including stops at two overlooks. This is a view of the Coral Sea and some surrounding mountains from the cable car at the start of the climb up into the Gorge:
This whole area is a tropical rainforest, and the two stops on the way up in the Gorge were filled with tropical trees and other plants. Here you can get a sense of the dense lushness of the area, in sharp contrast to the last several days out in the Desert:
These were interesting and we saw them throughout the day. This is a "Bird basket Fern" that grows up in the limbs of a host tree. The fern isn't actually living off the host tree, but it is living off the organic debris that collects around the limbs of the tree and then forms a "basket" that collects more debris, allowing the fern to grow to pretty impressive dimensions. We saw examples that must have been 7 or 8 feet in diameter:
The Cairns area averages about 2 meters (80 inches) of rain per year, with around 150 days of rain. In years when they have a cyclone come through (6 between 1997 and 2011), they get more than twice that amount of rain. Barron Gorge is home to Barron Falls, which after a good rain can be a torrent that looks like Niagara Falls. Today, though, it was somewhat diminished, but still pretty impressive at around 800 feet in height. This was taken from the cable car on the way up. Off to the upper right you can see the river before it actually plunges over the falls:
When we reached the top of the Sky way, we were in the little mountain town of Kuranda. The place is pretty touristy, but it did have lots of shops and cafes to keep the hordes occupied. We boarded a shuttle bus and went to the Rainforest Nature Park, where we had a guided tour of some of the local wildlife. These were pretty unique. This is a Cassowary, of which there are only about 1500 left in the wild. They are related to the Emu and Ostrich, and are very aggressive and not afraid to take on a human being:
These fellows were just lying around waiting to be petted:
Next up was this big fellow, Jack. He's 15 feet long and about 40 years old, a salt water crocodile. He is not the biggest in captivity today but the record for the largest is held by a crocodile 25 ft long killed in 1956. The story is, when Jack was captured, the animal park that got him tried to breed him with 12 different females. He reportedly killed each of them in turn:
And, finally, we had these two little guys:
After leaving the wildlife park, we headed out in a DUKW for a tour of the Kuranda River. This is actually a picture of one of the other DUKWs that was following us on the river:
And this was us leaving the road and dropping into the river:
After we had finished floating around the river and appreciating the foliage, it was time to head back down the mountain on the train. The actual track was completed around 1912 and was used to provide access to the Cairns area from the interior and, during WWII, to supply and transport troops at a number of bases in the interior. The train trip down took about 90 minutes and we went through a total of 18 tunnels, all cut through the mountains by pick and shovel. Here you can see the train at a stop overlooking Barron Falls:
We continued on down the mountain and once we were into the floodplain near the ocean, we passed through these sugarcane fields. I didn't realize it, but Australia is a major producer of sugarcane:
Today was a really interesting day. Tomorrow we're still in Cairns but we're taking a "down day" and just hanging around the city. On Saturday, we're taking a 4WD tour of another rainforest...having a blast!
Pat's Paragraph.... Just some observations and funny happenings. It's very hot here in Cairns, especially with the humidity. Everyone is sweating.
We were speaking to the concierge of our building and she was telling us about the salt water crocodiles here. They lose their fear of man and come right up on the beaches looking for food. No one swims in the ocean here, only in pools.
We were also warned today if you walk along the river, do not go out on the mossy rocks or you will slip and fall into the river. It's the crocs you don't see that will get you.
We saw an antique 1971 pink Cadillac El Dorado convertible yesterday and today a 1957 black and white Chevy Bel-Air. Both had steering wheels on the wrong side.
I was at a very nice restaurant in the ladies room and was drying my hands to leave when 2 Japanese men walked in already un-zipping their pants. They started speaking loudly to me in Japanese, like I could understand them, so I started speaking loudly back. "Ladies room! Ladies room!" They turned and walked out, not even zipping up first.
Then later as we were leaving the restaurant, I was standing in the gardens and this stylishly dressed very mature lady was walking out. I told her how lovely she looked and she thanked me. I asked her, "How do you do it, you look so cool?" She said calmly, "You don't wear anything underneath." So there you have it, Old And Wise.
