After being dropped off at the hostel, I went to get dinner in Cairns CBD. I'll merge those photos with the next evening, so this post will be about the Kuranda excursion by heritage rail and cable car.
Sharp on 0830 the train pulled out of Cairns Central Station and headed north, picking up more passengers at the Freshwater station.
The views of the lowlands got better as we gained altitude.
This is at the 180° hairpin bend where it's possible to see one of the ends of the train.
And on the outside of the loop, there are falls on the rock face.
The recent rains would have helped.
At the Barron Falls station, the train stopped to allow passengers to disembark and take photos of the falls. We got more views in the afternoon, from the other side, from the Skyrail.
The many carriages were packed. It's a popular ride.
More selfies before continuing.
The Kuranda terminus shop.
The station.
It's about 100m walk to the town centre, such as it is. It was raining so the rain poncho came in handy. Fortunately it wasn't as cold as I feared so I didn't miss having long jeans and a jacket. It was just drippy.
A funny T-shirt I spotted in a shop. Everybody I've shown it to chuckled. Sigh, I've been doing it wrong all these years. :)
I had a brunch of bratwurst, sauerkraut, bread and salad at the German café.
Seeing as it was raining, I decided to see Birdworld. Maybe they might have a cassowary. The macaws had a lot of personality.
Black cockatoo. This one's a native.
Blue and gold macaw to be more specific.
Sun conure.
This wasn't on the spotter's sheet they gave us.
Possibly a bar shouldered dove, a native.
Possibly an eclectus parrot, also a native.
Macaw again.
Eclectus parrots again.
An Indian ringneck getting some seeds.
Whistling ducks, natives.
A familiar native, the rainbow lorikeet.
Intermediate egret, a native.
More whistling ducks.
The pond in the aviary.
At last, the cassowary.
They had two, this is the second one in an adjoining pen.
Mandarin duck. This was the only pose I could capture.
Pied heron, a native, looking a bit bedraggled.
Buff banded rail, a native, which preferred to walk around on the ground.
Another eclectus.
A pair of native king parrots.
Getting a feed.
Helping itself.
Doesn't seem to be on the spotter's sheet.
A pair of them.
Also not on the sheet.
Nor this.
Rainbow lorikeets again.
Perhaps a king parrot.
A Raja shelduck walking the grounds.
That yellow.
One of the smaller birds in the aviary.
Possibly a sun conure.
The macaws liked to groom each other and play beak games.
They liked ruffling each other's feathers.
Torres strait pigeons at the feeding dish.
Coy Raja shelduck.
Looks like a small galah.
Alexandrine parrot.
Finally, a couple of black cockatoos.
The spotter's sheet is here if you want to try to identify ones that you see. First the non-natives.
Then the natives.
After that enjoyable hour, I had a late lunch in the restaurant.
This is the village open markets with souvenirs and similar for sale inside.
The Kuranda Hotel, rather forlorn that day. It would have provided many a drink in its day.
The entrance to the station. I however descended by Skyrail from the adjoining station. Those pictures will be in the next post.
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