Left Cairns

CAIRNS
I couldn’t sleep for much of the morning so it wasn’t hard to know we needed to get up before the sun rose. The wake up call was for 6:15 am since we have a 7:50 am gathering time. The ocean was full of mist and as we came into Cairns, you could see mists over the hills around though the mist on the sea was gone by the time we passed the breakwater. The sun never quite comes out from behind the clouds. There is another ship in port: the Andrea. You can see the roof of a distinctive restaurant in town which has a rain forest in the top of it. The Captain just came on to explain that we would have showers off and on today; the gangway will change from deck 3 to deck 4 depending on the tide. The Captain is leaving the ship here and we’ll have a new, unknown-to-us, captain. This is an earlier departure than we recall being told when we boarded in Ft. Lauderdale. So it will be interesting to hear what the rumor mill has to say about this.
Room service came exactly at 6:30 am and I went to shower while Ed got his breakfast under his belt. The water now is extremely hot so we set the shower for the lowest heat setting. I overheard some people in the hallway remarking about the same thing. It had gotten to the point where you weren’t sure how warm the water would be early in the morning. That’s certainly not the case at the moment.
Beagles again
We met another beagle on our way to the tour bus. I didn’t have the camera ready so I missed yet one more opportunity to show this darling little guys (and gals?) at work. We had gotten a late start since it took longer than expected for the ship to be cleared.
So we were off to our bus with Warrick (or is it Werrick? Or some other spelling? I’ve now met 2 guys with this name) and a lady of German extraction who was our guide. We had a few Germans on the tour so I don’t know if that was done on purpose or not.
Railroad ride
This is a wonderful ride up through the mountains on a route that must have been hell to create. The train cars were old fashioned ones with natural “air conditioning” (open the windows) and the train goes through some impressive bends for a train. The first one was typical of later ones where it made an 180 degree bend in a 5 chain (100m) radius curve. We began our ascent up the Barron Gorge to a place called Kuranda which is 334 meters above the sea. Much of this area is a World Heritage Site. We went through 15 hand dug tunnels one of which was over a quarter of a mile long and had collapsed during previous rains—and they announced this to us just as we were going into the tunnel. Along the way we saw some magnificent falls and the train even stopped at one place for us to get off and take some pictures. In many places you can clearly see Carins and the Coral Sea below.
Kuranda
This is listed as a “village in the rainforest” and it fits the description. Our bus was waiting for us at the train station here and Warrick was smiling in his shorts, baseball hat and short sleeved shirt, all in matching colors of blue. There is a lot to see up here if you have the time: butterfly sanctuary, birdworld, koala gardens, emu ridge gallery, and much more that befits this area and the rainforest. It was pleasantly cool up here and we enjoyed that part too. Again we had little time because of our late start so we were given a few minutes to look around and perhaps go to some of the places I’ve listed but with only about 30 min. it hardly seemed worth it to even try.
Cable car
We were to ride back down on a cable car and had a reservation for 11:15 am. It turns out that the cable car had been shut down for much of the morning, probably because of the weather and especially the wind. So we waited in our queue and eventually we were taken according to the order of our reservation time. This wasn’t bad at all and though the gondolas were able to seat 6, mericifully, we were put on with another couple about our age. The husband is the city architect of Chicago. I was afraid to tell him what I thought of the architecture in Cairns (more later if I remember).
The skyrail as it’s called is a very unique experience. The first leg high over the rainforest and through many towers is 4.8 km; the second leg, which is most of the descent, is 2.8 km. There were ventilation holes in the floor and about a ¼ window area open which allowed for great breezes and some good photo shots. This attraction was completed in 1995 and all of the towers were hauled in by helicopter to prevent damage to the rainforest. The tallest tower is 133 feet up and the highest point is 1,788 feet. The views are breathtaking and you go over rivers and see several waterfalls. You are very high above the canopy and can rarely see ground below and that’s usually water. I said to the lady that I wondered how high we were above the canopy never mind above the ground below. She definitely did NOT want to deal with that information at that point.
Several times along the route, the gondola stopped completely. There was often a gondola going in the opposite direction and we could hear the laughter of the (usually) young folks in the other one. Ed even got a few photos of them. The wind was whipping around pretty good but it wasn’t scary; going over the towers is usually an uncomfortable time for me but other than the noise (which didn’t disturb me) you could hardly tell when we passed through a tower. Now Ed moving around in the gondola to get better shots, well that did make it jiggle and I wasn’t too comfortable with that part.
The panoramas on the last leg when you are descending into the area of Cairns are the best you could expect to have of the city and countryside below.
Lunch
We were then taken to Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park where we had 30 min to get a buffet lunch. The selection was modest and nothing special by any means but it served the purpose. Then we were off with our aboriginal guide, Colin, to see the activities available. First was a unique show about the aboriginal story of the creation of man. Boomerang pitching was next with Ed doing a credible job according to a man we’ve known from the other cruise. Then spear chucking—they do it the most unusual way. One young man, not with our tour, got it right into the faux kangaroo! We were all duly impressed including Colin.
From there we were given a choice since time was running out: go for a digereedo and rain forest medicine presentation or go to a movie about the history of the aboriginal people. We opted for the former and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It is impossible to describe adequately how this instrument is played but take our word for it: it takes years of practice. And just to show off, Colin showed us how to do exactly the same sounds with a PVC pipe!
Esplanade
Warrick took us by part of their local esplanade which is a lovely public area. Cairns was pretty much all military in WWII and initially had gorgeous beaches. In order to create a deeper harbor, they cut back a lot of the beach area and took it far out to sea. Not far enough though because it all came back and now there is not beach but there are impressive mud flats!
The architecture of Cairns is unimpressive to me. Lots of boxy buildings all painted a sick white color. I loved seeing the old wooden homes that are lovingly preserved in many of the suburbs. It is a nice enough town whose base is tourism especially trips to the Great Barrier Reef.
Mad rush
We came back to the ship with the intention of going to the supermarket to store up on diet Cokes. We brought a luggage carrier specifically for this purpose. Neither of us was keen to go out again and do this but I asked Ed how important it was to him for me to go with him. He knew this was coming and he went along while I went to the spa to get my bangs trimmed since they were to the “I’m-going-to-go-crazy” stage. I was lucky and was taken right in. Note to Amy: They charged $15 USD for this service. This is what I had hoped since the spa is rarely busy while we are in port. Alyssa did my hair; she also did Ed’s yesterday. I checked some email in the internet café since it’s right next door to the spa. Also while there, I went to the scale to weigh. I guess it knew I was coming because it was in pounds. It’s really hard to tell what my real, buck naked in the morning weight would be but I was OK with the reading and would still pass at Weight Watchers but just barely.
Ed came back with 2 cases of diet sodas and took a shower. We both got sweaty today because of the humidity mostly. I put on a show about the aborigines while I downloaded over 500 photos from the 3 cameras. Then I left the batteries to recharge after I reformatted the chips in the cameras.
Dinner
We had some fun discussing some of our experiences in travelling and getting stuck with outrageous bills unexpectedly. It was fun to hear about what Cairns has looked like through the years. There are also interesting stories of life and different rules and cultural values in our different countries.
We met Chuck and Kathy and got the news from the overland adventure. They had a very good time but didn’t ride the camels at Alice Springs. Aw shucks: that’s the most fun! Ed said he’s ridden a camel but it certainly wasn’t when I was with him!
When we returned to the room, Ed laid on the bed and promptly went to snoring so I didn’t wake him for the show tonite which was Frankie interviewing the singers and dancers. I always enjoy these things but I can afford to miss it.
So now I’ll turn to editing the photos and selecting a few to put up for y’all to see.