Queensland wandering boots: Day 12 To Kuranda

 

By the numbers

1 bus

1 wet day

10.93kms

14721 steps

 

I woke up to the rain again. This morning I was going on tour and I was guessing that I would have rain today. The weather report said it would be a wet day and they were right. Tomorrow is meant to be clearing up, so we shall see what happens then. I made my way to the shops for a coffee as you know coffee is life, and so is a good breakfast. Once I was fuelled and ready to go it was time for me to head over to the ticket office to grab my tickets for my day in the hills in the rain. I was doing the train to Kuranda, returning by skyrail and then the bus back to the train station. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

 

With half hour before boarding the train, I had checked in and had climbed aboard ready to go. I was in seat number 4 and had the entire row to myself. Behind me were a family with kids, one that would every so often squeal rupturing my ear drums. I could live with that for a little while. The commentary while on the railway was pretty good especially when they mentioned Redlynch, which was the name of a foreman with red hair who did the hiring and firing. People in the end thought that was the name of the area and the name stuck with no objections. The railway was built by hand with shovels, pick axes and explosives from the late 1800s. Two companies working on the railway went broke, then it wasn’t fully finished until around 1910. The breeze was nice and cool on the way up and the spectacular views were hidden by cloud and rain. The Barron falls, which was one stop was hidden behind cloud and it was raining. I got back onto the train after a couple of minutes in the rain. It didn’t take long before the train made it to the station, where we got off. I hung around for a little bit for the men’s loos to clear out and then I was on my way.

 

At this stage the rain had stopped, so much so that I had to put my sunnies back on. I had found on my map that there was a cemetery in Kuranda and I wondered if that meant there would be historic graves. The track said it would take 40 mins one way to get to it. I found a shorter route that included roadwork, so had only one side to watch for traffic, while the other sat at the lights. No one said a word and I walked across had a look and realised it might not be the best idea to wander around when wet as it was hilly and there was more rain coming. Walking back I headed for the bird park, where I got to see a few different birds including Macaws, galahs, black Cockatoos and a Cassowary. I did have one sit on my shoulder and he didn’t last long. I didn’t last long in the Avery either as it had started raining. I didn’t go into the historic markets area as I wasn’t that interested even though that is part of why you visit Kuranda.

The rain steadily grew heavier and more constant as I wandered around with my brolly. I made my way down to the Skyrail and then back to the train as I wanted to walk some of the river route. That just got too wet to even try, so I went back to the railway line and found a monument to the engineering feat. I went looking for a coffee and hung around town while drinking it as I had heaps of time before I was meant to get the skyrail at 230pm. I bought a real leather belt with a waterproof hat. Then it was time to make my way back, luckily the sky rail area was covered and I needed to charge my phone as it was at 39%. It wasn’t very long until we could line up at the Skyrail waiting for our turn.

 

The best part of waiting was when it came time to board, I was allowed on with another couple as I was a single person. I didn’t get off on the stops on the way down as we all were not wanting to get wet trying to find the lookouts. There were parts that were so fogged up that we would not have been able to make out any of the landmarks anyway. There were noises like an aircraft nearby on our way down until all three of us realised it was the road below us. One of the stops we had to change cars as the one we were one goes back up the hill, but they don’t tell you that when you book. Once on firm ground again, I got a coffee as I had a little bit of a wait before the bus came. At least they had my name on the paperwork and we went right back by bus to the train station we began the day on while it was pouring still. It was just after 4pm and I didn’t really want to go very far, but had a wander through the shopping centre before heading back to the hostel as I wanted a shower and wear something a little dryer. Hopefully my last day in Cairns will mean that it is a nice dry day and I can make contact with the shuttle bus as well to make sure they are picking me up. I will try to take it easy if its wet as I don’t want to have wet sandals or clothes I am wearing. If wet maybe a movie or the Cairns museum.