Robert's Travels

Today was a combination of a couple things that I really enjoy - travel and trains! We took the Kuranda Scenic Railway from Cairns to Kuranda, which was something I had booked ahead of time in order to guarantee us seats on the train.

We got up shortly before 7:00 and left the AirBnB shortly before 8:00; we drove the rental downtown to the Cairns Central mall. We stopped in at the Coles (an Australian grocery store) where we grabbed some food for breakfast and lunch. We ate a quick breakfast at the mall, and then returned the rental car to the Budget location several blocks away. We had not run into any problems with the car so the return process only took a few minutes. After leaving the car behind we walked from the Budget parking lot to the Cairns Railway Station. At the station I purchased the tickets I had reserved, and then we waited for our departure! The train was scheduled to depart at 9:30, and we arrived shortly before 9:00, so we killed some time in the mall by getting a coffee.

Shortly before the scheduled departure time we made our way back to the station and boarded the train. We were seated in Car 14, the last car of the train. While the train had a pair of modern diesel engines, the cars were all refurbished train cars from the turn of the century. Our car was fairly empty, and we were seated in a row by ourselves. Right on schedule the train blew it’s whistle and began to pull away from the station. The train was scheduled to take 2 hours to reach Kuranda, so we got comfortable in our seats. As the train was accelerating away from Cairns Station an audio tour began playing through the speakers in the car. The train passed through the suburbs of Cairns before reaching the Freshwater railway station, where more people got onto the train. We then pulled away and began the ascent to Kuranda.

As we were going along the track we learned about the history of the area and how the railway was constructed. The initial views of Cairns were nothing special, but as we left the city and got into the countryside things started looking more impressive. The major ascent began shortly after passing Redlynch, where a wide curve that gave a fantastic view forward of the entire train. This was where the trains used to build up speed before beginning their ascent, and after we completed the turn the views began getting more impressive. As the train climbed we began passing through some short tunnels that were blasted out of the mountainside, and cleared using only shovels and pickaxes. There are a total of 15 tunnels and 37 bridges that we ended up crossing on our ascent into Kuranda, and this line is considered to be one of Australia’s engineering marvels. Over 2.5 million cubic metres of rock and soil were excavated during the construction of the line, the majority of which was taken down to Cairns and helped fill in the swampy marshlands that are now the site of the city.

As the line climbed higher into the mountain we got better and better views of the city of Cairns, the mountain range itself, as well as the ocean. About halfway through the trip we crossed the most impressive bridge on the line, which allowed the train to pass Stoney Creek Falls. Here the engines slowed down to give us a better view both of the waterfall to the left hand side of the train, but also the gorge out to the right hand side of the train. The bridge itself is an example of a curved lattice railway bridge, and it is itself a beautiful structure nestled right into the side of the mountain. The train geek in me was very impressed.

The train continued upwards, and shortly before reaching the Kuranda station had a brief, 10 minute stop at the Barron Falls station. The platform at Barron Falls station is a narrow one, built into the side of the gorge wall, and provides an unobstructed view of Barron Falls. We got off the train, stretched our legs, and took some photos of this multi-level cascading waterfall, until the sound of the train’s whistle let us know to re-board the carriages. From here it was a short ride into Kuranda, where we disembarked and began exploring the town.

The first thing we did was take a walk along the Barron river. This river runs beside Kuranda and leads to the Barron Falls we previously saw. We took a pedestrian bridge over the train tracks, which led to a staircase that led down to the river. The path headed north, following the river until reaching Kennedy highway. The pathway didn’t have any warnings about crocodiles, but as the pavement ended and turned to dirt about 100 m from the staircase we began to grow apprehensive about the safety of the trail. It felt very isolated and we were concerned there may be crocodiles about, however we managed to reach the end of the 750 m trail without encountering any dangerous wildlife. The trail ended when we reached the Kennedy highway - there was a staircase that took us up into the Kuranda Rainforest market, where we found a picnic bench and had a brief lunch.

By this point it was about 12:30, and with 3 hours until the return train departed we decided to do some more exploring. We walked through the marketplace stalls, however many of them were closed. We figured it may be busier on weekends, but it felt very quiet on a Monday. We found a small, 9 hole mini golf course that we decided to play, and the final score ended up being a tie of 29-29. It had been a while since either of us had golfed, and the course was a bit tricky at times, so we both had a few rough shots, but in the end it was a fun way to spend 20 minutes. We left the market shortly before 13:00, and began walking towards the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary. It was a quick walk from the market, and after arriving paid the entrance fee and stepped into the aviary.

I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect, so my first emotion upon stepping into the aviary was awe. After clearing an ‘airlock-like’ pair of plastic curtains we found ourselves in a large, glass-enclosed building that was teeming with butterflies. I had been in butterfly conservatories before, the one I remember best was in the Calgary Zoo that I often went to as a child, but this building was in a completely different league. The aviary is basically a large greenhouse, with a pathway for visitors that snakes through the structure, avoiding large plants, some small ponds and having a few bridges that crossed the rivers running through the inside the building. The star attraction were the butterflies, however, and they were definitely the star of the show. There were thousands of butterflies in the space, and even though the building was large the density of butterflies made it feel small. It was impossible to miss them; within a minute of entering a butterfly had come and landed on my hat as I was taking a photo of a different butterfly. There were a number of different species, and a great mix of yellow, orange, black, blue, green and red colours could be seen fluttering through the sky and the leaves. There were a few staff members who were refilling nectar stations as we explored, and they provided us with some interesting tidbits of information as we passed by. We left the aviary for a brief period to visit the caterpillar breeding section and learn about the conservation work that they do, but overall spent almost the full hour exploring and watching these magnificent creatures fly and eat. While it wasn’t the first butterfly conservatory I’d visited, but without a doubt it was the best one.

We spent almost a full hour in the butterfly conservatory, and left shortly before 14:00. At this point there was an hour before we needed to return to the railway station, so we decided to spend our last bit of time in Kuranda at the Koala Gardens. The Koala Gardens are a small zoo that contained a number of animal species native to Australia. There was a lake containing a number of freshwater crocodiles; an enclosure with some koalas, potoroos and a couple of lizards; another koala-only enclosure; an enclosure with a pair of wombats; and a large enclosure we could walk through with kangaroos and wallabies. It was interesting to see these typically Australian animals in person, and they seemed to be well cared for. There was a separate building that contained some creatures that only come out at night, and a third section dedicated to showing different species of Australian pythons; these other areas were also informative to visit. We stayed at the zoo for about an hour, and left just after 15:00.

We walked back to the train station and got ourselves twist mango and vanilla ice cream cones as a light snack before the train ride home. Ice cream in hand, we boarded Car 13 and found our seats. The return trip was definitely busier than the outbound trip, but I wouldn’t say that the train was full by any means. Right at 15:30 the engine blew its horn and we began pulling away from the station. The audio guide shared the same information as we heard on the way up, but we were able to see things from a new perspective by travelling in the other direction. I had put the zoom lens onto my camera in anticipation of some of the views we would have, and was able to get some great photos of the Stoney Creek falls and the bridge that crosses it. The train pulled into Cairns station several minutes before 17:30, where we disembarked and then headed downtown to find some dinner.

We ended up having dinner at a burger and milkshake restaurant, Jimmy’s Burger & Co, only a few blocks from the train station. We were just looking for a quick dinner, and Jimmy’s fit the bill nicely. The caramel milkshake I had was pretty tasty, and the burgers were also good. After dinner we took an Uber back to the AirBnB, where we ran a load of laundry and packed up our bags. We turned in early as we were both tired from a long few days of touring.