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Monday, February 3, 2002 Cairns-Kuranda Railway and Sky Rail |
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After a quick breakfast at the hotel, our shuttle picked us up for a 5 minute ride to the Cairns railway station where we boarded the Cairns-Karunda Railway. |
 The train pulls into the station. |
 Randy's just like a little kid on a train! |
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The railway was completed in 1891, and winds it's way through Baron Gorge, climbing about 1000 feet through 15 tunnels and around 93 curves. |
 The track is full of sweeping curves, |
 tunnels, |
 and bridges. |
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It was lots of fun and the views were amazing, though it was very hot. The tour company we booked with (All In A Day Tours) really knew what they were doing putting us in the second to last car, because even though most of the cars ahead of us were pretty full, ours had only 4 other people in it, so we could move around and get the best views. |
 Down below is where our white water rafting trip ended a few days ago. |
 Baron Falls is in the background. |
 Upstream there's a power station. |
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After a stop to overlook Baron Falls, we reached Karunda Station, about an hour and a half after leaving Cairns. |
 The engine unhooks in Kuranda. |
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Since it was so hot, and we didn't think the little shops in the small town would offer much beyond touristy knickknacks, we decided to board the Sky Rail Cableway directly. |
 Rick, suspended a few hundred feet over the rain forest. |
 The first station along the Sky Rail approaches. |
 Yvonka even made an appearance. |
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The Sky Rail is a 7.5km gondola ride which is just at the level of the rain forest canopy, putting us right at the level of most of the life in the forest. |
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The gondola makes two stops along the way, and we got off for a few minutes at each. The views of the trees (some with other trees growing out of the top of them!) were amazing. It was a very peaceful ride. |
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At the base of the Sky Rail we had about an hour before our shuttle arrived, so we had lunch and looked around the gift shop while we waited. Rick even found some Geckos lurking about. |
 He thought he could hide from Rick... silly Gecko! |
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Once we boarded the bus back to town, we decided to have them drop us a few blocks from the hotel so we could do a bit of shopping. Unfortunately we had forgotten that it was 2pm, the hottest part of the day. We grabbed a smoothie on the way back to the hotel to cool off a bit, then rested in the cool hotel room for a bit. Then we went down to the pool for a dip, and, with the help of the concierge, decided to move our rainforest safari to Tuesday, and booked a sea plane to take us out to some snorkeling on Green Island on Wednesday. Neither of us has been in a sea plane, so that should be fun! |