Today is October 1st - I can't believe it! I'm sure at home in New Hampshire the temperatures are falling, especially at night. Here, not so much. But today should be a really interesting day.
We were picked up by coach as usual, from our various hotels - at which point we were taken to the Freshwater Railway Station to board the Kuranda Scenic Railway.
The construction of this line began in 1887, with 1500 men. The feat included laying 33 kilometers of track from Cairns to Kuranda, with 2.3 million cubic meters of earth being removed, 106 cuttings, 15 hand-carved tunnels, 55 bridges, and 98 curves. The Stoney Creek Falls Bridge was completed in the mid-1890s and stands on three trestle piers, with a tight four chain (80.46 m) radius. The track is narrow gauge (3' 6" or 1067mm) and the carriages are from the early 1900s, still in use today.
Along the route, plus a waterfall on the left as we traveled up.
The trip is through Barron Gorge National Park, and we did get a stop at Barron Falls for some photos of the falls.
I was scheduled for the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary first.
After that, the next activity was an Amphibious Army Duck tour through the rainforest, partly on land and partly in the water.
Once we completed that we had a BBQ lunch and then headed over to the Pamagirri Amphitheatre for a traditional aboriginal dance performance and then an opportunity to watch to watch didgeridoo playing, spear throwing, and to learn to throw a boomerang.
Next into the wildlife park, with flora and fauna. Crocodile(s), koalas, kangaroos, snakes, dingoes, reptiles. Supposedly a wombat, but I didn't one in its enclosure. Oh, and also Tasmanian devils, but unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of them.
About 4:00pm we were at the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway Station for our return trip to Cairns. This is a 7.5km (40-45ish minutes) cable skyrail giving amazing views.
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