Expedition to Kuranda

By Guest Editor John

For our second day in Cairns we took a trip to Kuranda, 30km into the tropical rainforest, 1,000 feet up the mountains. I picked this outing for its fun modes of transportation: a long “Skyrail” ride up the mountain, a good, mostly flat walk around the village of Kuranda, then a narrow gage railway back down. 

 The “Skyrail” was a cable-suspended gondola, made by the same Swiss company that supplies ski resorts. 

The long ride above the rainforest canopy gave great views. 

The gondolas ascended above the steep canyon of the Barron River. Intermediate stops along the route allowed us to walk to the canyon edge for dramatic vistas of Barron Falls. 

The village of Kuranda is a special sanctuary for shops selling Chinese-made refrigerator magnets and for restaurants which don’t expect repeat business. It was cooler there than at sea level, perhaps 80 degrees, though the relative humidity was still in the low triple digits. We walked through gentle, barely noticeable rain. 

The return trip on the narrow gage railway was the most fun. The carriages were antiques. Ours was one of the newer ones, built in 1936. I was pleased to note that its stainless steel pneumatic break lines appeared to have been recently refitted. The 12-car train was pulled by two very colorful 60-year-old, 1,000 horsepower Co-Co diesel electric locomotives. 

We rattled through the rainforest and along the edge of the precipitous gorge. 

At the station is a monument to the dedicated workers who carved the railway through the mountainous jungle. 

I love it when the engineers are the heroes. 

Fun fact from JN: Australia has no national railroad gage. Each state builds tracks of different widths.