Saturday, August 30, 2025 (continued)
After lunch we had some free time to explore the town of Kuranda.
 |
Kuranda Original Rainforest Market (est 1978 by local
hippy artists and craftspeople to draw visitors to the
village, starting as a place for selling handmade goods
and second-hand items |
 |
| An eclectic collection of buildings and booths on a hillside |
 |
Bob Marley is featured, but recreational
marijuana is illegal in Australia |
 |
| Alloxylon flammeum/Tree Waratah blooms |
 |
| Massage and Intuitive Energy Healing |
 |
| Even a miniature golf course (KSS) |
 |
We went to the guide-recommended Kuranda Rainforest
Coffee Shop for the locally sourced coffee |
 |
If you want black coffee, you order a Long Black,
which often comes with carafe of hot water; Tamiko
had an iced latte, being sure that no ice cream was added
|
 |
Metalwork railing features intricate designs
of rainforest animals and plants |
 |
Queensland is known for Boulder Opals,
characterized by bright rainbow colors |
 |
| Saint Saviour's Anglican Church (c 1915) |
 |
| Kuranda Visitor Information Centre (2015) |
 |
Inside the visitor centre: the awesome web of
a Cethegus robustus/Curtain Web Spider |
 |
| Can you spot the Megacrania batesii/Peppermint Stick Insect? |
 |
| A tree full of staghorn and basket ferns |
 |
| Jehovah's Witnesses display |
 |
| More metalwork including a giant insect |
 |
We actually saw the Papilio ulysses/Ulysses Butterfly
from the train and would see it again |
 |
Time to head back to Cairns on the Kuranda
Skyrail (1994-1995), which marked a
world first by carrying the Olympic Torch on
the cableway over Australia’s World
Heritage listed Tropical Rainforests |
 |
| Skyrail covers 7.5 km/4.6 miles |
 |
| Crossing over the Barron River |
 |
| Seeing our gondola shadow on the rainforest canopy |
 |
| Heading down to the Barron Falls Station |
 |
A short hike to view the upper portion of
Barron Falls; the short straightaway just
below the tops of the trees is the Railway |
 |
A view of the lower portion of Barron Falls
and the Barron Gorge |
 |
| A photo of Barron Falls in the wet season |
 |
| Continuing on Skyrail over the rainforest |
 |
| The gondolas were like beads along the cables |
 |
A nature hike at the Red Peak Station,
featured plants with sun-seeking and
nutrition adaptations such as the
Ficus watkinsiana/Strangler Fig whose
fruit/seed gets caught in the sunny
branches of the host tree, then sends
down rootlets to the ground |
 |
Calamus australis/Lawyer Cane growns
sun-seeking spines on its stem |
 |
Agathis robusta/Queensland Kauri
is the tallest tree in the rainforest |
 |
| A section of the 175 m/574' boardwalk trail |
 |
You can pay extra to ride in the
open-air canopy glider! |
 |
| We can see the Coral Sea again |
 |
The water feature below us is Cairns Wake Park,
for wakeboarding (like water skiing on a snowboard) |
The Kuranda Skyrail ended in the suburb of Smithfield, so our guide drove into Cairns.
 |
| Cairns is surrounded by extensive sugarcane fields |
 |
A controversial statue (1972) of Captain James Cook was
removed in 2022 due to its colonial symbolism, but then
James Cook University expanded its presence... |
 |
Our guide pointed out the Melaleuca
quinquenervia/Paper Bark Tea Tree,
whose tea is supposed to cure diarrhea... |
Next: Darwin I.
No comments:
Post a Comment