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| The views from the Kuranda Skyrail were fantastic! High above the rainforest, you can look 100 meters down, or out, to 100 miles away! |
| Erin's Journal for 2/16 to 2/17//03 Queensland This morning we woke up on schedule, showered and prepared for our ride to Kuranda. We'd been told that the Skyrail (a cable car ride) wasn't working this month due to maintenance, so we thought we'd have to take the train both ways. But when we called the front desk to book our tickets, we were told that due to it being a Sunday, the Skyrail was working after all, so we booked a combo ticket that allowed us to take the train one way and the Skyrail return. Then we had to run out the door, as our train would leave in less than 40 minutes! We made it to the station in plenty of time, but to check in and get our boarding passes we had to stand in a long line which moved slower than any other line I've ever been in. I mean, whoa - new records of sloth here!!! There were probably 4 busloads of tour groups as well, all of which were being checked in ahead of us, and we ended up being last in line to check in - literally! There were people behind us in line, but they ended up cheating by skipping over to the wrong counter and getting the agent there to help them! It pays to play dirty, I guess. Anyway, we finally checked in just in time to board the train. The ride up was interesting, winding up and through some mountains along a steep cliffside, passing over a huge river and next to a pretty waterfall. Due to the drought it was pretty small, but they informed us that during rainy years this waterfall splashes over the train! It was about an hour ride (and very hot & muggy), so by the time we arrived in Kuranda we were ready to get off the train. From there we wandered through the small town for a few hours. It wasn't a remarkable place, and most of the market items were so touristy that we passed right by. There were a lot of opal dealers though, and I found a necklace set that I liked - can't leave Australia without opals! We also found a few small gifts for our friends back home, so it wasn't a wasted day. The markets were a bit smaller than we'd expected, so we were done early. Our scheduled departure wasn't until 3:30, so we waited at the Skyrail terminal for about 40 minutes until our group was called. The Skyrail ride was really great. It took us up and over the rainforest, with excellent views of the canopy and mountains. There were a couple of stops along the way where you could get off and take short walks through the rainforest to viewpoints or info plaques, but we were tired and didn't spend much time with that. The last leg took us over the dividing mountains and gave us fantastic ocean views too. We'd highly recommend the Skyrail. When the ride was over, we had to take a courtesy bus back to the train station where we'd left the car, then drove quickly back to our place for some now-needed pool time! The pool felt awesome and refreshing, as did the shower I went up for afterward. For dinner we ordered pizza and watched a movie. A nice night in after a good day. 2/17/03 Today we woke up lazily and prepared to move on southward again. It was hard to want to leave this beautiful place, but we also wanted to get to a few places further south. As we went to pay for the place though, we had our second run-in with the Visa company we use. Their computer declined the charges for being over a certain amount and in a foreign country, and we ended up having to call - again! The first time this happened, while getting cash to pay for our car in Adelaide, it had taken multiple long-distance pay phone calls that cost over $10 and a ton more in frustration. In addition, it took the involvement of Glenn's parents to get that issue settled and the card functioning again - in spite of the fact that we'd been putting charges on the same card in several different countries in 3 continents - for months now! So this morning when we called from the hotel front desk, we explained that this had happened before, that we'd sent in letters explaining where we'd be, and hadn't they noticed that all the charges on the account were from Australia for the past 3 months?! Anyway, we stayed on the phone with the customer service agent till the charge went through, and he assured us things were all fixed. Nope. Sure enough, we'd gotten about 100km down the road and stopped for gas, and the card was declined again. RRRRGGGH!!! We didn't stop to call again at that point, as our plan was to get to Townsville and see the aquarium there this afternoon, and we'd left a little behind schedule now. So we continued on our drive, stopping briefly for lunch and arriving at the aquarium at about 3pm. We weren't sure we'd have enough time to see everything, but figured we could change our plans for tomorrow if necessary and come back. Well, that turned out to be unnecessary. This place, recommended to us as being far better than the Sydney aquarium, was very small and had been recently remodeled. So the exhibits were all still under construction or were rebuilding themselves (like the reef exhibit), so we followed a couple of the free tours but were done with the whole place in less than an hour. So much for that one! Afterward, we headed back out of town to the caravan park we'd stayed at on our way northward a week ago, but were shocked to find they were booked out! So we headed down the road a tad and found another place, not as nice but with more amenities. We settled in and Glenn took a quick dip in the pool before we headed out to call the Visa company and get dinner. We were angry enough that Glenn planned to get a manager on the line and make it clear that this was their last chance to get it right for us, but he ended up being very nice to them (even after they hung up on us once!!!) and agreeing to call every month to let them update their computers with our current agenda - the claim was that their computers would only hold information such as 'out of the country' for 30 days! I was frustrated that we'd just agreed to keep things more difficult for ourselves and not even had the satisfaction of telling someone off, but oh well. We got some KFC for dinner and brought it back to the room, where we watched '24'. We saw the first two episodes up in Cairns, and the 3rd and 4th were on tonight, so we are now practically addicted! (except that we missed the whole first season and don't know what happened there...) |
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| Queensland coastline near Cairns |