After arriving Saturday afternoon in Cairns our first jobs were to set up camp at the Lake Placid Tourist Park and book some tours for the next day. We decided to spend Sunday riding the Kuranda Scenic Railway up to Kuranda and the Skyrail back after a wander around the village.
Kai was particularly keen for the train trip and sat on Maddi's lap enjoying the view from the window seat for most of the ride. The train climbs at a very leisurely pace to allow everyone to take in the scenery and take lots of photos. With Maddi, Tig and myself all with cameras in hand we certainly got our money’s worth of photos during the 90 minute trip up the mountainside. The scenery was spectacular overlooking the valley below and seeing Cairns city in the distance. The commentary along the way was very interesting and the little information booklet they handed out at Freshwater Station came in handy. After 15 tunnels and a few waterfalls we got to stretch our legs at Barron Falls railway station just before we reached the top. We only had 10 minutes to enjoy the view before the train whistle would be blown to instruct us to board again. The kids always get a little nervous about these types of situations and insisted that we got back onto the train almost as soon as we got off in case it left without us. Barron Falls would be spectacular in flood but alas today it was just a nice set of waterfalls into the deep gorge below.
Up at Kuranda we continued our tour of Australian play parks (that is what it feels like sometimes) and browsed a few shops before we headed off for a short rainforest walk at the edge of the village. As we went to cross the road the first thing Tig points out is the guy standing on the other side of the pedestrian crossing with a rather large snake rapped around his body. I automatically felt like turning around, as I am not such a huge fan of this particular reptile but instead followed my family who were all keen to pat it. The guy was prompting business for the Venomous Zoo behind him, which thankfully no one insisted on going into. The only snakes I like are of the jelly variety. Our little rainforest walk wasn't so little for the kids in the end being 3kms but I am proud to say Kai walked the whole way. He has become quiet a walker at times and at other times unbelievably painful. Unfortunately the start of the rainforest walk wasn't so impressive with numerous broken bottles along the path and quite a bit of cut back and dead palms scattered nearby. The further we went along the less broken glass we came across thankfully. We returned from Kuranda on the Skyrail and enjoyed a short rainforest explanation tour at one of the stations. Back at the caravan park the kids enjoyed a quick dip in the swimming pool, which had Maddi shaking with cold by the end of it. It really hasn't been warm enough for swimming but kids will be kids.
After our early start for our Kuranda experience the next day was a lazy morning of washing and sleeping in before we decided to head up to Port Douglas. Port Douglas felt very much like Noosa and after a pub lunch of Barramundi, chips and a beer sitting out on the main street we headed north for a little drive through the Daintree. Coming out of Mossman we tagged onto the back of a group of 4 Toyota Landcruisers obviously heading for Cape York. They were all kitted up with two spare tyres on the back of each, 2 with roof top tents and a canvas bag hanging off the spare on each. And all raised. On closer inspection of the vehicles at the Daintree River Ferry Crossing we concluded they came from the Grafton area as they had a Grafton Four Wheel Drive Club Sticker on the back windows. We lost the four-wheel drive group, and everyone else it seemed, at a lookout and enjoyed a leisurely drive through the Daintree rainforest. It had some beautiful rainforest avenues and at one point on the road you are driving through the rainforest with the sea right beside you. We made it up to Emergen Creek where we crossed over just for fun. On the other side we pulled over and watched the four-wheel drive group, which we had followed earlier come through the creek. It was getting quite late now and we had a long way to travel back to Cairns so we hit the road with a quick stop at the spectacular lookout just north of the Daintree River. We got back to the van after dark and had a makeshift dinner of bolognas sauce on toast. While Tig put the kids to bed I headed to the local shopping centre in search of a supermarket for the weekly shop. When I arrived at the local Woolworths I did a quick check of the store hours and saw that they closed at 9pm. That would have been fine if it wasn't already 8.37pm. I did the quickest weekly food shop I think I have ever done particularly in a foreign store and walked to the checkout as the announcement informing me the store was closed came over the PA. If I was back at Coles Asquith I would have had till at least 10pm, I think, but this is Cairns.
Next morning we packed up the caravan and head for central Cairns, which is not really designed for large caravans but we did manage to squeeze into two, metered parking spaces on the esplanade. While Tig did some jobs around the city the kids and I hit Cairns Lagoon. The kids had a great time playing in the water with the sand and bubblers. The weather was fantastic and even I had a little dip. After almost 2 hours of water fun it was time to head back to the car and depart Cairns for the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Our afternoon driving took us up a very winding road back up to the Atherton Tablelands and out onto the Savannah Way. We managed to put some kilometers behind us and stopped for the night at a rest area in Forty Mile Scrub National Park. We have left the coast, the beaches, grassy campsites and the rain behind us and in exchange can look forward to Road Trains (50m long), long drop toilets and red dust.
Till next time…
Thea
