Back to running after a couple of days off, surprising how steaming warm it is already at 6:30am.
Got picked up by a bus in the morning to go to Smithfield where the sky rail (cable car thing) departs from. There is one mandatory and one optional terminal change before reaching the end of the line - nothing to see at the first stop, the second stop was near some waterfall at Barron Falls.
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| The sky rail at Barron Falls. |
The final stop was at the town of Kuranda, quite big considering it's somewhere on top of a mountain, although it was specifically for tourism now, so nothing but craft shops, opal shops and restaurants in the streets. It took a while to find a good place for lunch but eventually found somewhere selling nachos and chips! After a long wait for lunch to turn up had the choice between visiting 1) Bird World 2) Butterfly Sanctuary 3) Koala Gardens 4) All 5) None.
The Koala Gardens seemed like the best option. Inside they had crocodiles, tired koalas, wombats and some free range kangaroos. In the night enclosure all I found was one bilby. The place was alright but you'd be better off visiting an actual zoo I think.
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| Koalas sleeping all day. |
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| Some member of the Kangaroo family. |
With a bit of time remaining I decided to try and follow the signs for Barron Falls Gorge. The signs said it was between two and three kilometres but the road just went on forever, and it was all up and down hill. I gave up eventually since I didn't want to walk forever and there was no sign of the place being close yet. To get back I went via the Jungle Track and River Walk instead which was much more pleasant, the highlight was the rail line running through the forest that reminded me of many episodes of The Walking Dead.
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| Jungle Track. |
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| TWD. |
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| Jungle Track continued. |
Yet again I was dying of thirst so went through about a litre of water while waiting for the scenic railway back towards Cairns. The railway was like a poor man's Puffing Billy - it took about an hour and a half and the scenery was mostly on repeat, a big forest gorge on one side and nothing on the other side but a cliff face. It didn't help that our allocated seats were facing the opposite direction of the train and were at the very end of the carriage.
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| Train stop at Barron Falls. |
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| Is there a chance the track could bend ? |
Walking - 20500 steps and 215 minutes
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