Kuranda Train & Skyrail

Sun July 24 - Kuranda Train & Sky rail
Even though the Sky rail and train station are both very close to where we live, we hadn't gotten around to exploring this attraction.  We knew we eventually would and what a great opportunity to do it with Kim, Darrell and Chris!

Our ride

Dropped everyone at the train station shortly after 8am.  Parked the car at the sky rail, jumped on the motorbike with Scott and headed back to the train station for our 8:50 departure.  You should have heard us discussing this one the night before!  We did this so we had a car at the sky rail when we returned at the end of the day.

We sat in car #13 near the back of the train.  We travelled through 15 tunnels carved by hand past Stony Creek Falls, Robb's Monument, Glacier Rock & Red Bluff and eventually stopped at Barron Falls.  Barron Falls was completely different from when we saw it during the wet season.  We listened and watched video clips of the history of the railway as we traveled up to Kuranda. 

Darby & Mum

Stony Creek Falls

Looking back over Redlynch

relaxing journey

Robb's Monument

Barron Falls in the dry season

We arrived shortly after 10 am.  Kim, Darrell, Tina and Brody went shopping while we went to the Butterfly Sanctuary.

Kuranda station

Hailey really enjoys the living statues

Going in

Butterflies everywhere

Ulysses butterfly (left side)

We met up with the gang and had lunch at an outside cafe.  Then we all went to the Bird World.  As soon as we walked in the Eclectus Parrot flew on Scott's shoulder, then he proceeded to do the same to Darrell.  He was very inquisitive as he tried to land on Hailey's shoulder too.  A little scary for her as he was quite a large bird with extremely sharp talons!

"Welcome to my home!"

OW that's sharp!

The Alexandrine Parrot is more my size.

Nice Canadian landing pad!

 

We got on the sky rail for our 7.5 km cableway journey down the range.  We split ourselves up into 2 different cars.  It was a breathtaking view as we travelled above the canopy of the rainforest.  As there were 3 different legs of the trolley system, we had to get out at the first station.  The Barron Falls Station had 2 lookouts and an interpretative centre.  We could see the Barron Falls from the other side which was a different perspective.

leaving Kuranda

our ride down

That's a long way down!

Cindy, Kim and Chris

Our second leg of the journey we swapped our seating again into 2 gondolas to our next stop at Red Peak Station.  As we were all getting tired we chose not to explore the flora and fauna at this stop.  We boarded 3 gondolas for the last section of the trip.  The view this time opened up to expose the coast line and the communities along it.  It was fun to spot places we knew and look out across the Coral Sea.  It was a clear day and we could see Green Island.

The Coral Sea

Brody & Mum

Cable park from above

Darby

Road to the Tablelands

Once we got down I took a group of people home then came back to get Scott and Hailey.  Then I took them to the train station to pick up the motorbike, before heading home.

Scott & Hailey

Leaning into a round about

Another great adventure.