Kuranda Scenic Railway

 

KURANDA SCENIC RAILWAY

One of the big spots to go from Cairns is a trip to Kuranda. They have a scenic railway that goes up a canyon to the small town of Kuranda, leaving from Cairns Central. They also have a Skyrail tram that goes to and from Smithfield. You can take either round trip or combine them. Both cost a bit of money.

There is also a public bus that goes up there for 7 AUS each way, which is much more affordable but probably not as scenic. At first, we thought to take this but changed our minds at the last minute and hopped on the Kuranda Scenic Railway, which was nearby.

Their webpage describes it like this: “Far North Queensland’s Wet Tropics World Heritage Area are among the oldest rainforests on earth. Thousands of species of plants and hundreds of unique creatures inhabit this lush green world. The famous Kuranda Scenic Railway winds its way on a journey from Gimuy (Cairns ) via Bubundji (Freshwater), to Ngunbay (Kuranda), the village in the rainforest. Rising from sea level to 327 metres, the journey to Kuranda passes spectacular waterfalls as it moves through the stunning Din Din (Barron Gorge).”

The old-fashioned railway was fun, and they explained a lot of the history of the area while we traveled.

KURANDA SOUVENIR SHOPS

In Kuranda, we got lunch and walked around. It’s small and touristy with lots of shops. The souvenirs were surprisingly affordable, compared to some places. 

You can also see Koala’s there, but we had done that in Cairns. So, I opted to go to the Butterfly Sanctuary. 

THE BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY

They have 1200 butterflies there, which they hatch and grow themselves. I walked through the butterfly dome. I had one butterfly land on my hand, even though I wasn’t trying. And later one landed on my 360 camera. Not sure if it will be visible.

Later, I tried to get butterflies to land on my hand, but they wouldn’t.

SKYRAIL

The Skyrail held up to 6 people in each car, but we rode by ourselves. The ride was quite long and covered quite a distance. We rode like 10 minutes, then got off and had a chance to walk to a lookout point, then rode 20 more minutes before having another stop.

At the second stop, the app for the Skyway would display a fake VR Cassowary for you to do a selfie with. Rather bizarre, but fun.

Skyrail, tram ride video, part 1(Youtube): https://youtu.be/Vz6xYtn8pcg?si=zrtEYWdj5NfBhx8z

Skyrail, tram ride video, part 2 (Youtube): https://youtu.be/jAD2gLuZOsc?si=nuqqpnS3aNTCHrvV

Khevron’s Skyrail video (Facebook): https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02za2KMs4Z64iHMuV2jjiREwRbirDxYqQDsiKu19WiaETSL3qq57SFiFg7Hqbxyf6Gl&id=1218759563

At the end, we took the Skyrail back to town, Smithfield, and then we walked 30 minutes to the nearby mall, got dinner and caught the bus back to Halloway Beach, where we were staying.

OUR TRAVELS 

ON KHEVRON.COM

https://khevron.tripod.com/khevron/australasia/index.html

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