25 March; Trains, ducks and skyrail

Up until yesterday, we had experienced the rainforest by car (driving past it/through it), by foot (various walks) and in quadbikes. Yesterday we added another 3 modes of transport to our list: trains, an army duck and skyrail.

We started the day by climbing up a mountain in a train; The Kuranda Scenic Railway. This train was apparently quite an engineering feat when it was built in 1891 as the workers had to chop away at the rainforest and then at the mountain side to make the tracks, and then blast their way through the mountains using dynamite to create 15 tunnels. It was originally built shortly after they found gold (and tin) in the surrounding area. Nowadays its a gold mine in itself considering the number of tourists...We travelled in style in the Gold Class compartment. This exclusive section of the train afforded even more leg room, better views, complimentary drinks (which Harri took advantage of), yummy nibbly snacks and our own personal tour guide who would tell us exactly where to sit and when to take the best photos. Now that's what I call service :-) On the way we also stopped over for some impressive views of a waterfall, which was later used to support a local hydroelectric power station.

Next up were the army ducks, 6-wheel drive vehicles constructed during the second World War designed to travel on land and in water. We went down pretty narrow and steep tracks and the guide was very good a pointing out all sorts of interesting plants. For example there is this one plant with tasty black berries which stain your teeth black for the next 3 days (apparently quite a funny practical joke...) and another one which has silica-like substance on its leaves which sticks to your skin and inserts a neurotoxin which can last up to 6 months (evil!).

Then the skyrail. This is the longest cable car in...can't remember whether it was Queenstown, North Australia or world (does it matter?). But anyway it took us down from Kuranda back to Cairns level over the rainforest in about 45 min. So basically we were looking down at the rainforest canopy, flying just over it. Enough to get a good feeling for how high the trees were, but very hard to capture on the camera (especially through the water droplets which clouded the cable car cabin windows). The journey also included a couple of stops where we could have another walk around within the rainforest (with mosquitos waiting just outside the cable cars for unsuspecting tourists....). On a good day the views from the skyrail would have been fantastic: over the rainforest, the valleys and right into the ocean. Unfortunately it wasn't a good day and so we descended into lots of cloud. At some point all we could see around us was the cable supporting the cabin and nothing else - felt like we were floating in mid-air. Creepy.

Our organized tour not only included all these modes of transport in/over the rainforest, but also an introduction to aboriginal culture. We watched a show of traditional dancing (including hilarious audience participation!), listened to a didgeridoo being played, saw a demonstration of the use of a spear-thrower (impressive extension of range) and even tried throwing a boomerang (very unsuccessfully in my case). All very interesting.

Highlights of Cairns:
- Living a life of luxury
- Great Barrier Reef for colourful underwater display of corals and fish
- Meeting and feeding roos - I didn't realize how interesting and full of character they were
- Experiencing one of the worlds oldest rainforest (in various ways, from various angles)
- Mudcrab dinner

Its just a shame that its the rainy season here and therefore we didn't get as many sunny days as I expected. However, the rain didn't stop us from doing much. As its also warm, its not too bad if you get wet because you get dry pretty quick and you don't get cold. What a difference compared with other countries (where wet=cold)!

Seems strange finishing up writing this while sitting on the terrace admiring the view over Sydney Harbour. Looking forward to the wedding tomorrow.