Australia Overland—Day Five—Friday, March 2, 2012
Talk about early mornings, today we received a 3AM wakeup call, but it was a mistake! The hotel made a mistake and gave us another group’s wake up call. Needless to say, we were early for breakfast and coffee!
At 8AM we were collected and driven to Freshwater Station to board the Kuranda Scenic Train, often referred to as Australia’s answer to the Orient Express. The railroad will take us up the mountain to Kuranda, through the rainforest, past sugar cane fields, over many, many bridges and traversing 15 hand cut tunnels, then past the spectacular Barron Waterfalls.
After visiting the town of Kuranda and doing a little shopping, we headed for the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway to begin our assent back down the mountain. Having seen many rainforests around the world, this is one of the most impressive, as impressive as the Amazon. The rainforest has the largest concentration of ancient flowering plants in the world. Midway down the rainforest, we stopped for a short walk with a Skyrail ranger to learn more about Cycads, Kauri Pines, Basket Ferns, bright blue Ulysses Butterflies, Cockatoos, and too much more to mention. It is no wonder this rainforest is listed on the World Heritage list and is one of the world’s remarkable natural wonders.
Our final stop on this amazing 5 days covering miles of Australia Outback, the Red Center, and so many of the countries natural wonders was to the Tjapukai Cultural Theme Park. Here we listened to the distinctive sounds and call of the didgeridoo, learned to throw a boomerang and watched an authentic Aboriginal dance and of course, rain – more rain.
The day has come to an end and it is time to head for home. The ship waits and sail away is scheduled for 6PM.
