5 August 2011 - Cairns Sunland Leisure Park, Queensland

So much for weather forecasts! It just goes to prove that they, the meteorologists, are as fallible as we poor mortals. However on rising and discovering the day little better than yesterday, we decided that we would not let it defeat us and would press on with our itinerary, which was to incorporate a trip to Kuranda.

Lamb shanks prepared and left to do their thing in the crock pot (such an appropriate winter meal for the tropics, don’t you think?), lunch packed in to the eski and togs thrown in just in case, we set off north through the city, turning west at Smithfield and steeply up the Lamb Range, winding our way up and over the Kennedy Highway. This will be our route when we set off from Cairns in a few more days and so served to be a good scouting trip. Chris remarked that he would make sure the water tanks were not too full as we left Cairns and that the van would be packed to minimize the weight and thus the drag up and over the top. Part way up, we stopped at the lookout and were able to see out over the northern part of the city, clearly as far as the airport and northward toward the northern beaches we have yet to visit. Far to the south, we could just make out the centre of Cairns through the rain mist.

Kuranda is just 25 kilometres north west of Cairns, with a surprising population of 3,500. I say surprising because this village is tucked deep within the rain forest across few streets that are actually visible, and one wonders where they can all reside. But I will say that there probably were an equal number of tourists in the place, because this is where the very famous historic railway runs to or from, taking one down through the Barron Gorge National Park. It is also the end (or start) of the Skyrail, the world’s longest rainforest cableway. Many tourists combine the two experiences spending the time in between in Kuranda, wandering about the charming markets and dining in the array of cafes and restaurants. The markets vary from the fortune telling and bead jewellery variety to sophisticated fashion and giftware. There are of course a multitude of tourist gift shops hawking tee-shirts, tea towels, key rings and a host of other trinkets. We enjoyed the art galleries, one particularly catching my fancy, carrying an amazing collection of prints. If I were decorating a home in say, Cairns, this is where I would purchase all the art from, assuming I was content with prints rather than the real thing.

It did rain while we were wandering about, but we were carrying umbrellas, and as luck would have it, the rain fell when we were totally occupied with indoor activities.

The main target for the day was the Barron Falls, and so we drove on the few kilometres down the river, still through heavy forest, until we came to the viewing point. We had crossed the river on the Kennedy Highway just before turning off into Kuranda, and there the river had been wide, deep and sluggish, so ignorant of the fate to come, when it tumbles 250 metres over the edge of the escarpment in a most spectacular fashion.

Barron Falls

The lookout is in two stages, a short board walk from where one can view the falls, and see the gondolas gliding overhead far above the falls. I imagine that this would be a horrific experience if one suffered vertigo, however I guess one would not set off in the first place.  The second track is a 40 minute return elevated wheelchair accessible boardwalk which winds through the rainforest canopy to the second lookout and the railway platform where paying passengers disembark to view the falls as we did. In the wet season the falls must be just amazing, because we were certainly impressed with them in this dry.

From there we drove a further kilometres along the road to Wrights Lookout, hoping to find picnic facilities which the falls lookout had lacked. There were none immediately evident so we sat in the cruiser and made do balancing our cups on the dash and our lunch boxes on our laps. When we did emerge and walk up to the lookout, we discovered there was a table, but the breeze blowing up the gorge did not particularly invite an al fresco experience. The view over the lower gorge where we had driven two days ago was however wonderful.

The rain had set in for the day, further contradicting the forecast, and so we turned for the city. We drove on in to the centre, called in at the Post Office for the third time this week in wasted hope that our registration label might have arrived, to be disappointed as expected, then in to Rusty’s Markets where we filled our green supermarket bag with fresh fruit and vegetables. Chris remarked that we probably did not gain much by buying these from here rather than the supermarkets, except for the pleasure of market shopping, and I countered that we were in theory buying fresher and more direct. He then made a pertinent comment that is most likely the truth; it is unlikely that any of the stall holders in this market grow the entire range of produce sold on their stall. So in reality how are these stallholders so different to the supermarket? They are still acting as the “middle man”. I shall therefore simply support the concept of market shopping as being an entertainment rather than some high principled occupation.

Since arriving home, Chris has washed the caravan and cruiser, and we have decided on our camp locations for the next seven nights. This latter goes against the grain of last minute choice but under the circumstances is a necessity. I shall now email the appropriate caravan parks to make the required bookings.