Thursday 4th August

Me and Mum on the Skyrail - obviously Mum or Dad
had said something very funny - probably Dad!

Today it was tropical weather - intermittent rain, cloud and sunshine - so we decided to go on our trip to Kuranda.  Kuranda is a village on the mountaintop in the middle of a rainforest.  You can reach it via Skyrail (cable car) or the Kuranda Scenic Railway which both go through/over the rainforest.  We bought a ticket to go up via the Skyrail and to come back down via the Railway.  The cable car was quite good and you got a great view of the rainforest canopy.  I was expecting to see monkeys and pythons but all we saw were a few butterflies and what Dad thought were crocodiles swimming in the river below but on closer inspection we are convinced that they were actually ducks!

The village of Kuranda was ok, it had a few nice cafes but other than that it was mainly tourist tat shops.  We got on the railway at 2.00 pm with high expectations.  We got off the railway at 3.45 pm.  I said to Dad "that lasted one hour and 45 mins too long!" as the journey from top to bottom was only 31 km and we had been on a train!

Dad pretending to look interested in the rainforest

You might be thinking that this is a short entry but actually it is a special edition today.  To cheer ourselves up after a very expensive, long journey and not that enjoyable day, we all wrote individual reviews of our trip to Kuranda.  See if you can guess which entry was written by whom.

Obviously you can't type the names in here - it is just for your amusement.

Speak soon.

Megan
xxx

Me on the Kuranda Scenic Railway

Review One

$250, for two adults and a child to take a cable car ride and a trip on an old train, is a lot of money.  When I paid, I couldn’t see how it could be worth it, and so it proved.

The cable car ride up to Kuranda was excellent - a lot of fun sailing over the rainforest and getting off a couple of times to have a little walk and take in the views.  And the views of the Barron Falls, river and gorge are quite special.

Kuranda itself is a tatty tourist village selling the usual rubbish, with the tell-tale jewellery shops that usually spring up wherever captive wealthy tourists can be found  - it was no surprise to see several tour groups up there, including one with Princess Cruises. 

We actually found a good place for lunch - a sort of organic salad bar place, but mostly it looked like greasy spoon cafes.  Our wander round was enjoyable enough, and up to the moment we boarded the train, it was a decent day trip - the station is lovely, and the train was pleasantly old-fashioned, but then the train started moving.  Well, I say moving, but in fact I suspect the Gorge was eroded more quickly than the train moved.  After a few minutes, it stopped to let us get off and look at the Falls - a spectacular sight indeed, and well worth a little while.  We then reboarded, hoping that the train might trundle along at an interesting clip, but instead it crept along at no more than 15Km/h for the best part of two hours.  Long before our arrival, we had tired of the views of tree, rock, soil and tunnel interior, and by the time we got off, we were half comatose, and half furious that we had been suckered into paying such a huge amount for something so mediocre.

If someone offered me a free ticket to do it all again I'd tell them to shove it. 

In summary:  nice cable car ride, worth perhaps 40 bucks each return, great views, nice train station and train to take a few pics of, maybe merits a morning of your life if the weather is poor on the beach.  Otherwise don't bother.

Review Two
We decided to go to Kuranda on a rainy/cloudy day in Cairns.  We went up on the skyrail and came back down on the Kuranda Scenic Railway (I wouldn't call it a railway, more like Kuranda Scenic Snailway).  It was not worth the money at $250 for two adults and one child.  However, the skyrail up to Kuranda was great and you got beautiful views of  Baron Gorge and the rainforest canopy.  The two stops on the way to Kuranda were good, especially Baron Gorge.  At both stops we kept getting stuck behind groups of Japanese and Chinese tourists that were keen to say hello to us!

Kuranda itself is not particularly impressive at all.  You can tell that most of it is artificially built as a result of the tourists coming on the skyrail and railway.  There are loads of tat shops selling cheapo stuff at expensive prices.  We had a nice lunch at Village Vibe cafe which was pretty much the highlight of our day!

After our lunch, we went to the railway station ready to board the Kuranda Scenic Railway.  The railway station was very pleasant and kind of lulled you into a false sense of security and made you optimistic (wrongly) about what was to come.  The railway carriages were quite crowded.  Well,I thought so because some guy next to me was filming the scenery out of the window passed me and in doing so had his camera shoved up against the side of my head for practically the entire journey.  The stop at Baron Gorge was excellent and gave you a better view of the gorge than on the skyrail.  The speed of the train was somewhat slower than walking pace therefore taking the train the best part of two hours to reach our destination.  There was cheesy commentary that was trying to be funny but really wasn't all the way to our station.  It might be an amazing, nationally recognised engineering feat but it was recognised by me as the most boring two hours ever!!!

Review Three

We decided to go on the Kuranda tour as my 12 year old daughter expressed an interest in the skyrail.  The weather wasn't too good so we thought it would be a good use of the day and so set off in great excitement to the skyrail!!! At the kiosk we were asked whether we wanted a return on the skyrail or to return by the Kuranda Scenic Railway - we decided on the latter.  The total cost of the trip seemed quite expensive and so our hopes were high as to what we were about to experience. 

We got in the queue for the skyrail which went down fairly quickly despite being stuck behind various Japanese and Chinese tour groups who all wanted their photos taking with their guide!  After about 10 mins we boarded our cable car and set off.  The journey to the first station was very enjoyable and it gave us great views of the rainforest.  We got off at the first stop and had a look round - again very enjoyable but not really worth the entrance fee we had paid.  We were given a complementary umbrella by a member of staff and encouraged to walk round the boardwalks which had lovely views of the rainforest with a little commentary.  However, I was still waiting for the wow factor that the huge entrance fee had given me the right to expect. 

We returned to the skyrail and went a little further.  Again spectacular views of trees and then in the distance a gorge and waterfall.  We got off at the second stop which did not disappoint.  Great views of Baron Falls and a few exhibits that had obviously been put there to persuade visitors that the entrance fee was a bargain.  There was also our first glimpse of an animal at this stop - a turkey walking round which forgive me for being blasé - we can see all the time in the UK.  I was convinced the turkey had just been  put there by a member of staff to convince us all  that we were in the throes of wildlife right here in the rainforest.

We got back on the skyrail for the final few kilometres to Kuranda.  Again spectacular views of the rainforest and waterfalls.  We were all looking forward to arriving at this hilltop village and seeing what it had to offer.  My husband, who was desperately trying to convince himself that the entrance fee had been worthwhile, convinced us all that we could see crocodiles swimming in the river below as we were coming into Kuranda but I'm not so sure as it was only after reading the marketing leaflet by the skyrail company telling us to look for crocodiles in the river that he thought he could see them. 

On arrival at Kuranda we followed the signs to the village centre and it was just basically Temple Street Night Market in Australia without the atmosphere.  I like to shop but goodness me even I struggled to see anything worth buying there.

That said we had a lovely lunch at a funky place and then convinced ourselves that the next bit would surely be the best the trip had to offer - the Kuranda Scenic Railway! 

We got the 2.00pm train from Kuranda and it set off at a very slow pace.  The seats are very comfortable but they certainly pack people on.  We were lucky enough to have window seats but I felt very sorry for our neighbours who didn't and spent most of the journey taking photographs of my daughter's head!  We trundled, and I mean trundled, along to the first stop which was wonderful.  We were at the other side of Baron Falls and the photographs we took were spectacular. We spent 10 mins there and after waiting for a few slow coaches to board the train set off again.  We were told by the rather woeful commentary given that we would travel through 15 tunnels on the way down and believe you me you start counting them in the hope you are at the finishing line - the train goes so slow.  In fact my Grandma could probably sprint down from Kuranda faster than the train went.  There were only about three great views on the way and the rest of the time we were looking at soil or tree roots!  By the time we reached the end we were all near exploding point as the journey had taken so long with so little to see.  We couldn't wait to get off but even that took some time as we had to walk through a carriage to get off and people had been so dazed by the journey they seemed to be moonwalking towards the exit. 

However, this is not where the long journey ends (I joked we could have flown home in the time it had taken to get back from Kuranda) we had to find our bus to take us back to the skyrail place to pick up our car.  This took a while as there were lots of tour coaches and then we had to give our name to someone who ticked us off his list - all rather backward and strange. Why not just have a free shuttle bus - but then again this is Australia where everything seems to cost. 

I would not recommend this trip unless you have 200 dollars burning a hole in your pocket and you can't find a nice sea folly bikini to burn it on.  The skyrail is good but only worth paying 30 dollars at most for.  A truly tedious day.   I returned to my apartment thinking I had been well and truly ripped off.  I'm sure the people of Kuranda are having the last laugh!