Friday-Saturday, 26-27 OCT 2012
We had two days in Cairns. Here is Paula relaxing on the veranda of their nice little historical museum. It's worth a visit because it is easily accessible from the port, and it focuses on World War 2 and its impact on this area of Australia.
Next we visited the Botanical Garden, which is excellent. Here is Tyler sitting in the garden cafe with his iPad.
While Paula was admiring the flora I enjoyed the fauna. The following little guys aren't particularly dangerous to humans but they are larger than any of their cousins in the US. I wouldn't want to walk through this web in the jungle and get him on my forehead!
Paula is photographing a beautiful Heliconia, which we have observed in botanical gardens elsewhere in Australia, New Zealand, and Hawai'i.
Another purty flahr. Paula didn't get the name of it at the time, but she has looked it up and says that it may be
Heliconia psittacorum.
The second day we rode the Kuranda Railroad train up to the village of Kuranda in the rain forest on the plateau inland from Cairns. This village and railroad were vitally important in the history of Australia. It provided the only link between the agricultural area on the plateau and the population center on the coast. The alternative was a trek of several days by foot or, I suppose, mule. In the early years there was not even a wagon road.
Barron Falls from an overlook stop on the train ride:
From Kuranda we rode the Skyrail gondola system over the canopy of the tropical rain forest back down to Cairns. Gondola over waterfall:
The Skyrail consists of two separate gondola systems, one from Kuranda up to the high point in the hills, and another from there down to the coast. This is a nature walk from the intermediate station.
The rain forest canopy from the Skytrain gondola:
The view toward the coast:
Posted from Tyler's iPad
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