Bridge the Travel Gap

We visited Australia last year and stayed several days at Port Douglas. On one day we decided to do a day trip on the Kuranda Steam Railway near Cairns. We booked a day tour with a company as we were without a car. The tour was fine and it is a full day with a lovely drive back down to Cairns with a few photo stops along the way. The van dropped several people off at the skytrain terminal for a trip over a rainforest canopy up to Kuranda. We decided not to as I was not interested having done several canopy type trips before and was more interested in the steam train. We went up to Kuranda with the tour guide who met the other people from the Skytrain and takes them to Kuranda and then to the train station for the trip down to Cairns. We spent more time wandering around the small town which was lovely. We also visited a Butterfly Sanctuary which was interesting as they showed the work behind the scenes. We did not have time to really visit the other tourist attractions around Kuranda. There are not many quality places for food in Kuranda and we finally ended up at the place the tour guide recommended. Bad mistake. I had deep-fried seafood and my wife a chicken salad. I can safely say I have never seen my wife so sick for 24 hours. The only good news is that she was well enough to do the Great Barrier Reef trip a two days later albeit a bit weak.

The train trip was brilliant, I really enjoyed it and wished it could have been longer. I also wish we had spent a bit more and done the Gold Class where you get drinks and some snacks as well as better carriages. Make sure you get on early and get a window seat otherwise you will have a restricted view of the scenery. Below are a few photos of the trip and the stop we made at a waterfall. More information about the costs of the trip are at the website below:

http://www.ksr.com.au/Pages/Default.aspx