15-28 deg C, warm and humid
We were up nice and early to get a walk (short) in before breakfast and then head off to the Cairns Central Station to catch the 8:30am Kuranda Rail to ...... you guessed it - Kuranda. Although the old steam engines have been replaced by two big diesels, it was still a slow climb to the top. After a short stop at Baron Falls, we were in Kuranda in two hours.
We had a short wander through the main street and then had to find coffee. Found the rest of the team at Frogs Cafe and we all wanted to order the special of the day - coffee and a pumpkin muffin for $8. However, when it came time to order, it was "Oh sorry, we just sold three muffins, so only have three left". What were they thinking making only six muffins when it is peak tourist season?? Anyway, three people had muffins, and three did not. Not to worry, lunch was just around the corner.
We decided to pay a visit to the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary which seemed a bit ordinary until you spotted your first butterfly. Then you saw all the rest; capturing them was the next challenge, one we lost on many occasions. The Ulysses proved the most elusive. In the sanctuary we were able to visit the breeding laboratory where we got to see the life cycle of many varieties.
We had had enough of the butterflies after about an hour, so left the others to it. We wandered through Kuranda and the original Kuranda Markets. When it's all said and done, it is all the same stuff in a different place. We were done by then and whilst Greg found a nice salad and bread roll at Foodworks, Wendy thought the Barron Falls hotel looked like a great place to eat and it was. She ordered the Chef's Choice - steak and bacon burger.
We had a 1:30pm gondola booked for the trip down the range on the SkyRail, so decided to make our way down the hill to the departure station. We had not pre-booked a bus from the SkyRail terminal to City Central (all included in the price) as we thought the terminal was close to the train station – however it is some 14km away! So, when we went to get on the SkyRail we enquired at the booking counter only to be told there were no seats on the 3pm bus. So, we got on the SkyRail and Greg Googled “buses in Cairns” and found there was a stop right next to the SkyRail terminal, so all was not lost.
The views from the SkyRail were quite magnificent. You don't usually get to see the top of the trees, let alone from so far up. The views of the Barron River and Cairns as we were coming down were fantastic; not sure the pictures do it justice though.
On
arrival at the SkyRail Station at Smithfield, we made our way to the Cairns Bus
bus-stop. Not even five minutes after arriving, we were on a bus to Cairns
Central for the princely sum of $5.70 for the two of us. It probably took 15
minutes longer than the free bus would have, but we saw a lot more of the
Cairns suburbs!
We had also forgotten to have our parking ticket validated so we did not have to pay for parking. On arrival back in Cairns we discovered the ticket office was closed, but Greg sought out the assistance of a Kuranda Rail man he found and we soon had our parking ticket validated. We paid $0 on exit and were very happy.
On arrival back at the van, it was straight into domestic duties for Wendy - house cleaning and cooking. The others joined us for dinner at 6pm and then whilst everyone went to watch "Flubber", Wendy did the dishes and updated the blog.
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