Kuranda

It's taken awhile to get this post up! I was waiting on some hard drive issues so that I could post some pictures, but things aren't looking too good on that front. I'll just have to post without them.

I was really keen to venture around Cairns a bit. I've mentioned that Cape York was at the top of my list of places to go, and also up there was Cape Tribulation, the Daintree, perhaps Cooktown, the Atherton Tablelands, and Kuranda.

It's tough though, when you're travelling not just for yourself but with a family to consider. Maya has been getting increasingly frustrated and unhappy with our life in this motorhome, so we promised her that after we got to Cairns we would turn around and head back south to Sydney. As close as we were to all of the places I would have really loved to see, her happiness (and my promise to her) was much more important. I plan to live a long, fulfilling life during which I can return to Australia at some point and finish seeing it all in a Land Down Under Finale. I'm cool with that.

Kuranda was just so close though, a day trip from Cairns. I expected the kids to really like the butterfly sanctuary, and I liked the idea of a quaint little rainforest village up in the hills. I had read about the Sky Rail, a cable car system leading from Cairns up through the mountains, over the rainforest canopy, to Kuranda, and thought it sounded amazing. There is also the Kuranda Scenic Railway which looked cool.

After our big day at the reef though, I just felt a bit overwhelmed and decided not to bother going to Kuranda. I was a bit teary and down, bummed out that the trip was really going to be over soon and we were missing so much, and bummed out that we were spending so much more money than I thought we would be, and bummed out that travelling with three kids was turning out to be way harder than I anticipated. The Sky Rail and Scenic Railway were expensive too, more so than I thought. So I was going to scrap the idea. But my lovely Nick said who cares about the money? It's something you want to do, so forget about the money. Those of you who know Nick know what a big deal it was to hear this from him. He's frugal. He suggested that I just take Nate and Maya, and he and Eli could spend the day together collecting our underwater photo disk from the city and playing in the pool. A day without Eli... I have spent lots of days without Eli, but none in the last 10 weeks or so, and it made me a bit sad, and it made me feel a bit guilty how great it sounded to just go up with Nate and Maya. So that's what we did.

A bus took us to the Sky Rail terminal in the morning. Maya was a bit apprehensive after an unwise rollercoaster choice at Movie World - she was worried the gondola was going to go really high and really fast, herky jerky all over the place. She was also coming down with something (which I didn't know at the time) and that made her extra sensitive. When our gondola left the station, it appeared that she was going to be panicked for the whole hour-plus trip, but she quickly realised that although we were indeed very high, we weren't going to go too fast, and the ride was going to be smooth. So it was all ok. Nate LOVED it. I was glad that Nick wasn't there, because he isn't great with heights - I am generally fine with heights and the thing still made me nervous. He would have had to close his eyes.

We got off at both of the two stops along the way to check out the little rainforest walks. The Barron Falls station had a guided walk with an Aboriginal guy who pointed out some special trees and plants and their medicinal uses. One had a bright yellow sap which is waterproof, so it's good to seal cuts and sores. It is also used in art, and he said, "If you use this as lipstick, it will last for weeks! Wouldn't it be lovely to see - yellow lipstick!" Maya thought that was wonderful. Back at the station, under the platform, was a model of a cassowary and two chicks. He told us that if we see chicks in the wild, they will be with their father. The mother lays the eggs, and then she's gone. The father sits on them for 50 days, not leaving to eat or drink, and then brings up the chicks. Interesting, these differences between species. Apparently there is a woman up in the rainforest there that has been feeding some cassowaries so we had a good chance at spotting some. I asked if they are tame or if we should be wary, knowing that cassowaries are very cautious, solitary birds. He said we'd be fine, just to mind we didn't approach any chicks or we could get ourselves into some trouble. Alas, there were no cassowaries to be seen.

At the Kuranda station, we were faced with the option of taking the courtesy bus to the end of town - a whopping kilometre or so - or walking. I suggested we walk, and then we could check everything out as we walked by. Maya's complaints after walking about 20 metres (she was getting sick, remember) quickly changed my mind, and we headed back to the bus station. The driver told us that Kuranda is a lot bigger than people expect - it has schools and its own hospital, and two pubs! He drove us the short distance and we got off at the other end of town where we could meander back to the station end to catch our train at the end of the day.

First stop: Butterfly Sanctuary. We had read that if we wore red, we would have a good chance of attracting butterflies to land on us. In Are We There Yet?, a wonderful book about a family travelling around Australia, the mum has a butterfly land on her blue top. Nate decided to be safe and chose blue shorts and a red top. Maya wore red pants and a yellow top with flowers on it. She was the lucky one - a butterfly came to check out her flowers. It even stuck around after her initial reaction of trying to brush it away! She giggled.

The place was small, packed, and almost dizzyingly hot and humid. We weren't there for more than 20 minutes or so. There were lots of beautiful butterflies, but for the most part they kept to themselves.

Our Kuranda visitors' guide mentioned an ice cream stand selling homemade, tropical fruit ice cream. This was our next stop. The sign boasted great ingredients - raw sugar, fresh cream and milk, local fruits and nuts. I read all of the flavours out to the kids - there were some tropical choices like mango, passionfruit, coconut, rum and raisin, and then all of the regulars like chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. Nate chose mint chocolate chip, which I was happy to see was not bright green. The ice cream vendor (who was quite a character - I could have stayed and chatted for ages if the line behind us hadn't been so long) told me all about the high quality peppermint oil they use in that flavour; he was clearly proud of his work which is always wonderful to see. Maya chose lemon. He gave her a spoonful to try first since it is very tart, "Made with lemons from my own tree!" She loved it, so that was her flavour. I asked the man what his favourite is and he announced without hesitation, "Coconut ruff! I've already had two doubles this morning!" "I'll take one," I replied. After a short chat about the area of Sydney we're from (he did some naval stuff in Quakers Hill, our neighbouring suburb, many years ago) and his proclamation of the benefits of fresh ice cream to one's complexion ("I'm 68! You'd never guess, would you?"), we retired to a bench to enjoy our ice creams. They were all magnificent. The coconut ruff - chocolate ice cream with shredded coconut and little chocolate chips - was so good I could have had two doubles myself. I gave a little soapbox speech about why it's always good to choose quality products even when they cost more, and how they have to cost more because they are quality, blah blah blah, and the kids nodded their little heads, absorbed in their quality ice cream cones.

There wasn't a whole heck of a lot to do in Kuranda. We could have had lunch at one of many places, but we had packed our lunches. The little village, it was clear, only existed for the tourists who came to visit. It woke up at 10am and went back to sleep at 4 after the last coach had left. My Lonely Planet suggested that you make Kuranda a day trip as there is really nothing to stay overnight for. We walked around the markets, checked out all of the touristy items for sale just like in any other touristy area of Australia. There was a candy kitchen with free demonstrations, but they were inexplicably closed for the day. There was another sweet shop with all kinds of homemade fudge, but they seemed to be the only other shop that was closed. My day of gluttony and excess wasn't to be.

Soon we had exhausted the village. We were uncomfortably hot. Maya's tolerance level was low. We decided to check out the historic train station, hoping it was air conditioned. We stopped at a supermarket for some cold juice to take with us, and headed to the station with two hours to spare before our train was due to leave.

It wasn't air conditioned, but it was at the bottom of the village and well shaded, so it was still a bit of a relief. We had no trouble passing the time; the kids listened to stories on their iPod and I read my book (the first decent book swap find of these travels!). We checked out the charming gift shop, and the kids took lots and lots of pictures and videos, which hopefully sometime I'll be able to post.

Our train journey home was long and slow, but interesting and beautiful. There was a commentary track that talked about the building of the railway line, early life in Kuranda, and general knowledge of the surrounding areas. More nice views.

Back at the train station, our bus was waiting for us, and it was glorious. It was the nicest bus I've ever been on, and the air conditioning made me want to cry with joy.

I'm glad we went, but only because I would have felt like we were missing out if we hadn't. We wouldn't have been after all. But the ice cream was magnificent.