Dear Family and Friends
Wednesday.
Wednesday.
It is now Saturday. We set off on Wednesday for our day touring on the Kuranda Scenic Railway and the Skyrail. As planned we met up with people we had become friends with at Mt Surprise and here at Walkamin. Bob and Ngiari left Walkamin to go up to Mossman and Pt Douglas for a couple of days. Steve and Sonja headed off down to Cairns a day later while Ken and I stayed put here at Walkamin. We set Wednesday as our day to regroup and do the day sightseeing.
We met at 9.30am at Freshwater Station which is just outside Cairns where we caught the Scenic Railway train. The train itself is one of days long ago meticulously restored to her original state with highly polished wood and a deep browny red upholstery. You could easily close your eyes and imagine that you were in another time and another era. The rail line runs through dense forest winding its way up to the Kuranda township. The scenery is breathtaking as you go through the Barron Gorge and wind your way upwards. Along the way you can see the Barron Falls dropping some 280 metres down the escarpents to the Barron River that you can occasionally glimpse far below and right at the bottom you can see the Barron Gorge Hydro electricity power station. If I remember rightly they said that there were untold number of injuries building the rail line but only 23 deaths. The line was commenced in 1885/6 and completed in 1891 and was built in three sections. The Navvies working on the line had to provide their own tools which consisted of a pick and a shovel whilst the company supplied the dynamite. The train goes through 15 tunnels, the longest and last one being 490 metres. During its construction the tunnel collapsed and 7 lives were lost, there are also 93 curves where you can get a great picture of the train sweeping around the corners.
They tell us that the journey up the mountain very soon became a sight seeing destination and Kuranda has made it's reputation as the sightseeing Mecca of the Far north Queensland for over 100 years.
The only disappointing part of the journey was that Ngiare didn't enjoy the train trip. She openly said she hated heights but was convinced or coerced by Bob to go. At times there was little between the train and the drop down into the Gorge. I began to wonder how she was going to get down the mountain because we had booked to take the skyrail back to Feshwater but my worries were unfounded as she thoroughly enjoyed the ride down on the skyrail. She was very proud of herself and made sure she had photoes to prove she did it.
Once arriving in Kuranda there was a courtesy bus waiting to take you up the hill to the top end of town. It was very steep so I think we all heaved a sigh of relief when we saw the bus. On the way the driver pointed out places of interest to visit and left us all to wander down the hillside at our own leisure and back to the Skyrail buy our depature time of 3.30. We separated and went our own ways to work our way through the different shops and markets. It was quite a warm day, around 30 - 33 degrees, and I'm really glad it was no hotter or it would not have been as nice a day.
Our shopping over we met up again at one of the hotel beer gardens and had a lovely cold lemon squash before the remainder of our walk down the hill and back to the Skyrail.
We met at 9.30am at Freshwater Station which is just outside Cairns where we caught the Scenic Railway train. The train itself is one of days long ago meticulously restored to her original state with highly polished wood and a deep browny red upholstery. You could easily close your eyes and imagine that you were in another time and another era. The rail line runs through dense forest winding its way up to the Kuranda township. The scenery is breathtaking as you go through the Barron Gorge and wind your way upwards. Along the way you can see the Barron Falls dropping some 280 metres down the escarpents to the Barron River that you can occasionally glimpse far below and right at the bottom you can see the Barron Gorge Hydro electricity power station. If I remember rightly they said that there were untold number of injuries building the rail line but only 23 deaths. The line was commenced in 1885/6 and completed in 1891 and was built in three sections. The Navvies working on the line had to provide their own tools which consisted of a pick and a shovel whilst the company supplied the dynamite. The train goes through 15 tunnels, the longest and last one being 490 metres. During its construction the tunnel collapsed and 7 lives were lost, there are also 93 curves where you can get a great picture of the train sweeping around the corners.
They tell us that the journey up the mountain very soon became a sight seeing destination and Kuranda has made it's reputation as the sightseeing Mecca of the Far north Queensland for over 100 years.
The only disappointing part of the journey was that Ngiare didn't enjoy the train trip. She openly said she hated heights but was convinced or coerced by Bob to go. At times there was little between the train and the drop down into the Gorge. I began to wonder how she was going to get down the mountain because we had booked to take the skyrail back to Feshwater but my worries were unfounded as she thoroughly enjoyed the ride down on the skyrail. She was very proud of herself and made sure she had photoes to prove she did it.
Once arriving in Kuranda there was a courtesy bus waiting to take you up the hill to the top end of town. It was very steep so I think we all heaved a sigh of relief when we saw the bus. On the way the driver pointed out places of interest to visit and left us all to wander down the hillside at our own leisure and back to the Skyrail buy our depature time of 3.30. We separated and went our own ways to work our way through the different shops and markets. It was quite a warm day, around 30 - 33 degrees, and I'm really glad it was no hotter or it would not have been as nice a day.
Our shopping over we met up again at one of the hotel beer gardens and had a lovely cold lemon squash before the remainder of our walk down the hill and back to the Skyrail.
Ken and I got on one skycar and the others piled in together on another one and what a ride that was. You go up really high and glide over the Barron Gorge and rainforest that stretches for miles / kms It includes over 1200 flowering rainforest plants, 800 of which are classified as rainforest trees. There are also orchids, ginger plants, strangler figs, palms, stag horns and elkhorns and any number of climbing plants. the tree trunks are so long as they vie for the sunshine. It's an amazing sight and when you look at the density of the forest you get an even greater sense of the enormity and the hazards of building the railway and more recently the skyrail. Not long before the jouneys end you leave the rainforest and there is a steep decent as you drop down to the journey's end. The view here once again is spectacular and it is a little like coming into land in a light aircraft. There are the same sensations that you experience but a much clearer panorama of the landscape below. You can see the farming paddocks dotted below, some reddy brown. some green and some yellow. You can see Cairns and the smaller seaside townships like Trinity Beach, Clifton Beach and Palm Cove. Then still further on you see Trinity Bay and Cairns' section of the Great Barrier Reef. There are no words that describe the differing tones of blue water and blue sky all wrapped up together as one.
We did not go the Butterfly Sanctuary, The Koala Gardens or The Birdworld. There just wasn't time and we can go back at some time to enjoy these places as it looks like we will be here till the end of the wet season.
We arrived home exhausted but elated at all that we had seen and done, It most definitely sits as one of the best experiences we have had so far.
You may want to read this blog in stages as there is so much we have fitted into these past few days.
Thursday
We had planned for a quiet day but we got an early morning phone call from some people we had met at church with an invitation to join them and go out to the home of another couple also from church for lunch. Robin and Pauline lived about 10 klms the other side of Ravenshoe (QLD's Highest town but still very much part of the Atherton Tablelands). On our first Sunday at Church I had chatted with Pauline and Robin while Ken was chatting with Peter and Erica and when I told Robin and Pauline where we were staying they had said that we were welcome to bring the van out to their place where there was planty of room to park it. I thanked them for the invitation and had agreed to visit them after they returned from Cairns where Robin was having treatment for cancer. We drove to Peter and Erica's place at Herberton, which is just the other side of Atherton and then bundled into their car to travel the half hour or so to get to Robin and Pauline's place.
We had a BBQ for lunch and enjoyed a very pleasant day getting to know each other. Robin and Pauline had spent a number of years in New Guinea and also in Victoria. We knew one of their children by name and as the afternoon progressed we found quite a number of other people that we both knew. We arrived home late in the afternoon excited about the idea of staying at their 3 acre farmlet. They have a little two storied cottage near the main house where we would park the van which has a toilet, shower, bedroom, and sitting room that we can use if we choose too. We've got a couple of places we want to go to here before we backtrack a little to Ravenshoe. So probably we'll make the move in the next week or two. They tell us they are away for Feb, March and April so it seems possible that we may well house sit for them during this time.
Friday.
Another amazing day. This time we set off with Peter and Erica who took us on a sight seeing drive of the local Atherton area. You could describe Atherton as a mountain top experience with dramatic landscapes and gently rolling hillsides. It clearly has a high rainfall as the rolling hillsides and vast farming plateaus are very green and the cows have the thickest long green grass that I have seen in a longtime. Lots of cows, both dairy and beef, but no sheep at all at least not that we have seen so far.
All the places we visited we will at some time go back to them. A quick overview of where we went. This is not in the order we visited them and I will describe them more next time we visit each one. We drove to Dinner Falls and the water filled Crater. We also went to Hallorins Hill and the Curtain Fig which is going to be hard to describe. We stopped at a lookout that spans the width and bredth of the tablelands including the seven sisters which are a group of mountains located close together, we stopped to spot the platypuss playing in the water but were unlucky because it wasn't the right time of the day. We had a picnic lunch at Lake Eachem and drove around Lake Tinaroo estate (Very much like Newlands arm near Bairnsdale). Then to conclude the day we went back to Peter and Ericas place and had tea with them before returning home exhausted after another busy but wonderful day.
I'll finish off now even though there is much more I can say about our day sightseeing but I will keep it for another day and another blog.
Love to all
Ken and Lyn.
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