Up at half past five today and walk to Cairns Station by six. Our two carriage rail motor arrived at 6:15 and left at 6:30.
The train made its way slowly out of Cairns passing through a dozen or more dangerous level crossings. Then it climbed slowly up the Kuranda mountain range.
We stopped for a photo of the lovely Stony Creek Falls.
The views reminded us of the Golden Pass Train in Switzerland.
At the top of the mountain we watched Barron Falls. Our Aussie driver Will said it was only like someone left the tap running overnight.
We stopped for a short time at Kuranda's beautiful tropical station (look for Lyn).
The first mango orchard we saw had 20,000 trees and we saw many more after that. Most of the tobacco and rice farms had changed over to tea tree and diesel tree. These are recently planted Brazilian biodiesel trees which are expected to pay well in 15 years time.
The tiny town of Mutchilba had been fighting to retain its name as a genuine geographical entity and finally won. It consists of a roadhouse and a Catholic Church, but the roadhouse people put on a great morning tea for 31 of us (find Malcolm).
This gave us a chance to stretch our legs as well. The road from Mareeba to Chillagoe is called the Wheelbarrow Way after the race that takes place every year. I think it was the first Sunday in June.
Our other driver Hamish took the keystaff from the grey box above so that no other train could use the single lane track until we return on Saturday. Safety measure old style that they were using at Whitby in Yorkshire.
We made another short stop at Dimbulah, where they were short of people.
Pronounced as in "Beulah Land" and not to be confused with Dimboola in Victoria.
We passed a former hotel called Espagnol, which people had not been able to reopen because of stringent planning rules.
We had a $15 barbecue lunch at Almaden Hotel, then Catherine of Chillagoe Cabins rushed us into her minibus and gave us a whirlwind tour of her town. This included a guided tour of the Royal Arch Cave. The hills here were limestone and marble and they resembled Wadjina Gorge in the Kimberley.
Compare Wandjina:
Finally she took us to the local BP man who was a Ford enthusiast. He had an A model.
A good T model,
and an original Pilot.
He also had a Shelby Mustang (1964?) and a 1970 Falcon GT which he said was worth half a million.
Our cabin is brilliant and Catherine gave us a home-cooked three course meal that capped a great day.
The train made its way slowly out of Cairns passing through a dozen or more dangerous level crossings. Then it climbed slowly up the Kuranda mountain range.
We stopped for a photo of the lovely Stony Creek Falls.
At the top of the mountain we watched Barron Falls. Our Aussie driver Will said it was only like someone left the tap running overnight.
We stopped for a short time at Kuranda's beautiful tropical station (look for Lyn).
The first mango orchard we saw had 20,000 trees and we saw many more after that. Most of the tobacco and rice farms had changed over to tea tree and diesel tree. These are recently planted Brazilian biodiesel trees which are expected to pay well in 15 years time.
The tiny town of Mutchilba had been fighting to retain its name as a genuine geographical entity and finally won. It consists of a roadhouse and a Catholic Church, but the roadhouse people put on a great morning tea for 31 of us (find Malcolm).
This gave us a chance to stretch our legs as well. The road from Mareeba to Chillagoe is called the Wheelbarrow Way after the race that takes place every year. I think it was the first Sunday in June.
We made another short stop at Dimbulah, where they were short of people.
We passed a former hotel called Espagnol, which people had not been able to reopen because of stringent planning rules.
We had a $15 barbecue lunch at Almaden Hotel, then Catherine of Chillagoe Cabins rushed us into her minibus and gave us a whirlwind tour of her town. This included a guided tour of the Royal Arch Cave. The hills here were limestone and marble and they resembled Wadjina Gorge in the Kimberley.
Finally she took us to the local BP man who was a Ford enthusiast. He had an A model.
Our cabin is brilliant and Catherine gave us a home-cooked three course meal that capped a great day.
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