Trains, Skyrails & Aborigines

The first thing I did after taking a swim yesterday was book all our tours with the concierge. Unfortunately, all our tours started bright and early. I guess that’s what we get for trying to recreate The Amazing Race on our honeymoon. Yes, we are obsessed with that show.

But today, we actually decided against going with a tour company and recreated it on our own. We took a cab at 730am to Freshwater station where the scenic railway originates. On a side note, Rich was really happy to meet a guy from Chile working at the bar this morning. (BTW, he was getting us coffees and not beer). Ok, I digress. The Scenic Railway is 1 of 2 ways to get to the tourist town of Kuranda, in the mountains. The other way is the Skyrail, which we decided to take on the way down.

I’ve never been on a train (other than BART, subways, and the Underground) before. It truly was scenic as we passed by waterfalls as it climbed up the mountains for a 1.5 hour ride. Kuranda really thrives specifically on tourism so there are animal parks and markets there. We were able to buy some souvenirs while we were there.

We also couldn’t resist the Koala Park. We already took our picture with the koalas at Featherdale but they wouldn’t allow us to hold them. This time, we got to….for an additional price, of course. Her name was Sienna. She was actually quite heavy. Do you know that koalas sleep for 20 hours of the day? Even when they are asleep, they are pretty amazing to watch since they can balance on those tree branches.

Since we were on our own, we took our time wandering through the streets of Kuranda. We had lunch at a German sausage place, which reminded me of Top Dog in Berkeley, except they had crocodile and emu sausages. We passed on those. We booked the last ride down on the Skyrail, which was 330pm.

The Skyrail was unlike the skyrail we took during the Blue Mountains. Blue Mountains lasted about 5 minutes long. This one was about an hour AND the highest point was 1300 feet above sea level. It was quite scary to say the least, especially since I’m afraid of heights. I would get mad at Rich every time he moved. After a while, I could sit back and just enjoy the tops of the rainforest. We would sit there in silence and just listen to all the different sounds…sounds that we’ve never heard before….almost like dinosaurs.

We got off at the Barron Falls lookout to enjoy the scenery. Unfortunately, the Falls aren’t as majestic as they were before. Now, the government has them under dam control and only trickles of water come down the face of the mountain. I’ve seen pictures of what it’s supposed to look like and I feel sad that they don’t let it run it’s natural course.

During our stopover, we met Milton, a full blooded aborigine, a clan member of a Tjapukai tribe. He reminded us of a big Koala Bear. He changed my attitude about rainforests. I don’t know who was more excited…us or him. He was excited to educate us about his land and we were excited to soak up the information. He took us around and explained all the different things about the plants: which ones were used for medicine, harmless looking vines that can actually trap you, leaves that he played tunes on, etc. He even showed us a huge pile of leaves that actually was the nest of wild turkeys. He was definitely the highlight of the day.

After spending a good half hour with him, we hopped back on the Skyrail and got off at the next stop: Red Peak. We got out for a quick second, but Rich didn’t want to spend too much time there if it was just rainforests since we got the tour from Milton. I asked the girl in charge of the Skyrail and in the bitchiest attitude told me how “that’s all we have since we specialize in rainforests.” Oops! I didn’t mean to insult her, geez! I was surprised, though, that she was the only person I met with an attitude the whole time we were in Australia.

Well, we got to the bottom of Caravonica around 5 and headed over to Tjapukai Aboriginal Park to buy tickets for their evening Dinner/Show. The only problem was doors didn’t open until 7. From the recommendation of a café owner in Kuranda, we took the bus to Smithfield Village…a mall not too far away. We figured we can pass time shopping or hanging out at a coffee shop. Just one problem….the shops started closing at 530pm.

The only stores open were Woolworth (remember that store?), Kmart and Coles (a grocery store). So, we pulled up a couple of chairs next to Coles, found an outlet, and charged up the video camera. I basically read whatever reading material I could find. After an hour, we took the bus back to Tjapukai. Unfortunately, they couldn’t drop us off at the park and he dropped us off on the highway across the way. That was pretty scary….crossing a highway, with my gimp husband “running” alongside me to get safely across the road. Well, we made it.

Before the show, we hung out in the gift shop and watched someone play the digiridoo and we got a couple lessons. I was actually able to play it. It’s like making your lips do raspberries and using your tongue to make the different sounds. The best part of the show took place outdoors where they did some aboriginal chants and created a fire around a pit.

Then they brought us into a restaurant where we had a buffet dinner. Oh….for the price we paid, the food was HORRIBLE! At the tail end of dinner, they did a 30 minute performance. I really liked the aboriginal things they did but then they broke out in some cheesy broadway type songs and dance. I was pretty disappointed when they started doing that.

It was really interesting talking to the dancers. They were actually brought to LA this year for Aussie Day 2006. There were a few dancers that they uprooted directly from their small villages, put them on a plane for the first time in their life, and brought them to good old Los Angeles. Can you imagine what culture shock that was for them? These people are used to catching their own food and eating it on the same day. They said they were so ready to come home. They were some pretty cool people.

We didn’t get back to the hotel until almost 11pm. We were beat! And tomorrow, would be another busy day.

PICS: Palm Cove Day 2