Cairns to Kuranda Train

This morning we’re off on the scenic train from Cairns. It’s a better day weather-wise today, and we settle into the train for a pleasant 2-hour trip. The sugar cane is in flower all around here and looks rather lovely.

The track goes through 15 short tunnels on the way, the longest being almost a mile in length. As the construction company was running out of time to complete they divided  the tunnelling work into eight sections, building each sections at the same time. Kuranda is apparently the northernmost station in QLD.

After getting off the train in Kuranda, we visited the butterfly sanctuary and the bird aviary. We had a simple lunch today at a sandwich bar before heading back to the train for the ride down.

Back at the tent, and after dinner, we monopolized the TV up in the backpackers’ lounge as there was no one else in there. We watched the second State of Origin rugby league game with a bottle of wine. We watched the first half on our own with the TV on what we thought was a reasonable volume for 8pm. At halftime a woman came out of one of the rooms and asked if we’d mind turning the volume down. Vic told her the knob didn’t work, but she walked up and fiddled with it anyway. Well, what do you know – it didn’t work. It changed the channel not the volume. After 10 minutes into the second half of the game she gave up and stomped back into her room. We never saw her again. Now the volume was twice as loud as it had been, but we didn’t care, at least we could hear it now! And QLD won the game as well.