Different Trains*

16 March 2010
Unpretentious Cairns was always only going to be a base from where we did other stuff and we were not expecting much but it has a good buzz: a tropical climate (no sign of the cyclone), the lovely trees and flowers that go with that climate, the sea and the Great Barrier Reef on one side and the rain-forest covered mountains of the Great Dividing Range on the other, numerous chattering birds – and even more chattering fruit bats (there is one tree-lined street where we refused to walk because it is impossible not to get shit upon). It has a very nice laid-back feel to it similar to many of the northern Californian seaside places we used to visit – this morning we even had breakfast in Fusion Organic Wholefood Café and Juice Bar and very good it was too.
We then set off on one of our planned trips – we travelled on the Scenic Railway to Karunda and we can tell you it’s much better than the Chingford to Liverpool Street line.

It is a lovingly maintained vintage railway, built in the late 19th century as a supply route for miners in the gold fields (and later in the tin mines) of Herberton. It winds its way through the rainforest, over deep gorges, past some spectacular waterfalls, over the Barron River and along the side of some very steep mountains sometimes going through the mountain – there are no fewer than fifteen tunnels. The ride is about 37km and it rises over 450metres – some going for a steam train in the 1890s (all the rolling stock was imported from the UK), sadly today the carriages are pulled by two huge diesel engines.
Karunda is a stereotypical tourist village with much hyped souvenir markets – cane toad purses, kangaroo scrotums made into bottle openers and a huge array of natural cosmetics – allegedly emu oil can cure almost anything but there is also a really good didgeridoo shop selling some examples of the real thing (most are copies made in China) and a guy playing them and making good music, at this point we should add that any comments from Barry about Rolf Harris will NOT be published. There were a few nature parks and we ventured into two of them – the first was Birdworld which is lovely walk-through aviary with lots of exotic and native birds including a couple of cassowaries and a large macaw which took a liking to Gregg by landing on his back, refusing to get off and tearing a hole in his shirt with its claws.

The second was far less traumatic – it was Koala Gardens with a number of the eponymous cuties (more photographs of the little beauts) plus wallabies, wombats and kangaroos.

For our return journey we used the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway – a truly wonderful ride in a cable car over the rainforest canopy and got aerial views of the huge trees with epiphytes including huge elkhorn and basket ferns, as well as orchids. As we travelled we could hear the birds and insects below us and get the occasional glimpse of iridescent butterflies.

The cable car runs in two sections and covers the 7.5km back to a place called Smithfield near to Cairns; it is an astonishing feat of engineering skill, especially when we learned that it was also an amazing piece of eco-friendly construction with the huge towers being lowered into place by helicopters to minimise damage to the delicate rainforest floor.
We had a really wonderful day, it has been warm, sunny and quite humid but there is a constant breeze (OK, wind) from the sea to cool us. The evening was rounded off with dinner at a microbrewery restaurant which had some really good beer (for the antipodes). The one thing that struck us though was the large number of young women wearing to-the-floor dresses – Gregg was reminded of Judith Durham and had a bad night’s sleep.