Welcome to the Jungle!

I had booked a tour to Kuranda, which is just outside of Cairns, for Monday. It was a pretty simple tour and all I really paid for was the transportation up there and back plus a trip on the skyrail. Kuranda is a small tropical village located in the rainforest region. The centre of the village is just for tourists and things. There are no actual supermarkets or things that regular people need to live in a town. It is build and run as a tourist stopping point. The whole village doesn’t open up until the first train arrives on the scenic railway. The tour that I was going to book included a ride on this scenic railway. It is supposed to be quite nice and other people that have been to Kuranda recommended it. However the title of this blog says Moreeeny, not ‘every other person’. So go figure that when I want to take my trip to the Kuranda village there was a landslide and the train isn’t working right now. Aw well, I thought I had really nice trip sans scenic railway trip.

Our coach took us up to the Kuranda village, making a quick stop at the Baron Falls lookout for us. It was really cool and it was a pretty long waterfall. I would have loved to see it in wet season when they get lots of rain. I bet it would be just spectacular then! After a few photos there we were bused up to the village and dropped off with instructions on how to get to the sky rail and when. As I said, the village itself is very touristy and had markets and things geared towards tourists. I had a quick look and bought one little thing. I was more interested in the jungle/rainforest circuit walk. I did stop for lunch at a small little café. I just ordered a sandwich because I didn’t have much money left. Well that sandwich was the best sandwich I have probably had in a long time! I ordered a simple chicken, lettuce, tomato, cheese and mayo, but that sandwich was so good that when a little stuck to the side of my mouth after a bite I didn’t dare use the napkin to wipe it off, that would be a waste! I had to savor every last bit of it, and it wasn’t that expensive either. So after lunch I headed off to find this circuit walk through the rainforest.

What a nice walk it was under the canopy of trees! Although it was SO humid! It was so humid that the paper map I had kept getting soggier and soggier as I walked even though I hadn’t put it in water at all. I was getting sweaty and gross and my hair was getting frizzy and stuck to my head. The heat combined with the humidity made my clothes stick to me and the air was so thick you almost had to push it aside when you walked. I saw a tree kangaroo that I didn’t know what it was till after I visited the interpretive centre. I was hoping to see a wild cassowary but to no avail. I did hear lots of exotic birds and see beautiful sights along the way. The trees and foliage in that rainforest were just unbelievably beautiful. This sights the sounds the smells everything around made for a beautiful walk in an exotic place. There was however on place where I had to cross a river. There was a walkway but still I had to cross about an inch of water. This did make me slightly nervous because Cairns is crocodile country! Just shortly before arriving at Kuranda the guide on the bus was saying how the Baron River is full of crocs. So I had a quick look at the edges of the water and quickly made my way across the short area of water. Since I am typing this you obviously know that none of them got me :) The rest of my walk back to the skyrail was magnificent! I just tried to walk slow and take it all in; I mean when else am I going to be in a rainforest in the next little while? At the end of the walk I continued to the skyrail to take my ride back down to meet the coach driver.

At the beginning of the ride they have a small gift shop with the regular things post cards, magnets, t-shirts, you know the drill. What they should have in this gift shop is depends. Yes I am talking about the adult diapers! I almost peed my pants when that thing started going! The Kuranda skyrail is one of the world’s longest cable skyrails. The total length is a little over 7.5kms with one mandatory stop in the middle to switch cars. It starts off all well and good but quickly becomes a death defying adventure cruise (well in my opinion anyway). They put you in a little tiny cable car in a building on the ground. From there you go around a little loop and you are off! The cable care starts to climb higher and higher above the trees, and then you come to a huge tower that holds up the cable, as you pass over the side the whole car shakes and there is an awful thump thump bump noise. The cable continues to climb until at several points you are almost a kilometer off the ground. The first leg of the cable car is about 10 mins or so, but I tell you what, even for someone that is not afraid of heights this felt like an eternity! Especially since shortly after you start the journey you have to cross the Baron River dangling a kilometer in the air from a tiny little cable stretched through the mountain tops! I felt slightly more at ease when we were over the rainforest. I think that somehow the canopy of the trees somehow created an illusion that it wasn’t so far off the ground. But over that river, man-o-man! I couldn’t believe how nervous I actually was seeing as I don’t have a fear of heights. I do however have a more then healthy respect for the laws of gravity and being a kilometer above a crocodile invested river dangling by a few bits of metal and a tiny little cable is enough to even spook anyone I think. So as I glided over the river and trees I took deep breaths and tried to tell myself that dead tourists are bad for business so they must have some sort of reassurance that this won’t happen. I also, even tho I was shakin in my boots, was concerned about missing the picture taking opportunity due to being foolishly scared of my impending death. So without looking too much I stuck my camera out the open window, yep the OPEN window, and snapped a few pictures. Then the wind started to blow. Do I even need to describe the white knuckled fear that flashed though me like lightning when this occurred? Despite all this I am glad to say that by the time I was nearing the first station and optional break I was feeling much more at ease and my initial fear had begun to pass. I got off at the first station and went to the look outs over Baron Falls. After a little time taking in the scenery and visiting the interpretive centre it was time to get back on the deathrail, I mean skyrail. Now one thing about the stations you stop at. There is no other way out of those stations but by skyrail, so if you get in the cable car to start with you have pretty much committed yourself to the journey. I suppose if someone freaked out enough when they got to Baron Falls they could send them back the way they came, but that would still mean another ride on the skyrail. Anyway I, as you know, go big or go home so even tho the first leg nerved me up a bit I was committed to this ride. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. The second leg was a breeze and my fear was almost completely gone, still with the healthy respect but less nail biting fear. I was able to really take in the scenes around me and the ride was so absolutely breath taking that no pictures, videos, sketches, pictograms nothing could capture what I saw on this day. Traveling above the rainforest and being able to see for days was amazing! I tried to take a bunch of pictures but it really doesn’t do it justice. I say this about so many things I have experienced here because it is true, some things just can’t be captured on film. I guess those images will remain in my head till one day I go crazy.

After my rainforest adventure I got dropped off at my hostel and enjoyed a quiet night in as I was to fly out the next morning.