DAY 44---CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA

 

We are docked in Cairns today.  Pleasant temperature and no rain while on my tour.

Historical/Background Info:

        Once considered a sleepy sugar milling town, Cairns is now considered the gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (one of the seven wonders of the world) and is a destination for sailing, diving, and snorkeling.  Whereas Brisbane was in the far southern corner of the state of Queensland, Cairns is in the northern corner.  It was founded in 1876 as a supply stop for miners heading for the Hodgkinson River gold field but later became a railhead and major sugar cane, gold, metals, and minerals exporting port.                Today with a population of 150,000, Cairns economy is driven by tourism and then sugar cane production.  The Chinese are increasingly coming here on vacations because of its climate and to see the Great Barrier Reef and the tropical rainforests.  We stopped here on both 2010 and 2017 world cruises.

LAST EVENING

        Well, yesterday morning there was a buzzing noise coming from what I finally determined was our suite air conditioning system.  Not real loud but would be annoying at night when trying to sleep.  I informed Bessie, our stewardess.  Two air conditioning technicians showed up along with engineering supervisor this afternoon.  The supervisor was an asshole I had an issue with on last year's world cruise because we had noise issues in that suite which he said was my imagination.  His idea of a fix was for us to switch suites.  We didn't.  Anyway, today he thought the noise was a normal ship vibration just like last year.  The two guys with him heard the noise so he disappeared.  They returned later with some tools and electronic diagnostic equipment.  They removed a ceiling panel in our closet and found the problem.  After 45 minutes it was fixed.

John & Cathi seated and Marge standing with me.

        Rebecca & I had this Philadelphia pepper pot soup with smoked  chorizo sausage.  Great!

Cathi had this salmon tartar

Rebecca and I tried the fish & chips but the cod was over cooked.

Cathi had this stripsirloin steak which she said was very good.  I will try it next time.

Marge had this lobster.  She said it was not overcooked and dry.  I have been afraid to try it in Compass Rose

                             Blazing Boots show was fantastic as usual.  Our favorite show!!

TODAY

        My tour was called to head to the cruise terminal at 7:40 so as to clear Australian immigration and then proceed on to my tour bus.  There was no line at immigrations so that was easy peasy.  Rebecca did not go on tour so cleared later after all the tours had departed.

Very nice tour bus today for a change.  Certainly nice to be back in civilization.  

                                                                      I was on bus #14.

                                                                  Goeff, our bus driver

Marge was on my tour also.  The tour was titled "Jungle Train & Amphibious Duck", a scheduled 5 hour tour.

        The bus departed the terminal at 8:05.  There were probably 40 of us on the tour and this group was amazing as they were prompt being back on the bus when our tour guide said to be.  Usually there is some late person or persons who hold up the whole group.  Even our tour guide said on the way back to the ship that our group was the best ever time wise.

        Our driver, Geoff, took us through Cairns then through the low lands where we passed many sugar cane fields.  It won't be harvested until July through December.  

We arrived at our first stop 45 minutes later.  This was the Freshwater train station for the Kuranda Scenic Railway.  You can board it in Cairn but they took us to this station (only other one) to save time.  The train pulled into the station right on time at 8:50 for us to board.  Unfortunately, I did not get a good window seat.

Station

                 Train arriving at station pulled by two 1000 HP electro-diesel locomotives.

                                                    This guy watched me board the train.

There were benches on one side of the train seating 4 people.  I was on the outside across from this nice lady.  There was a window to my right across the aisle.  The seats were padded nicely so it was a comfortable hour and a half ride.

Initially we passed the low lands where people lived.  Note the low profile roofs as they do have cyclones down here.

                  The lady standing is our guide, Louise.  She was very good and entertaining.

The train was taking us into the world's largest and oldest rain forests at Barron Gorge National Park.

The train would be climbing over 1000 feet above sea level.

It took us across bridges and through quite a few tunnels on our 30 miles ride.  The train now is only used for tourism but it was initially built to take supplies inland and was extensively used by the military during WWII.

This was the first waterfalls we passed by.  Louise said we were very lucky as this is their rainy season and they have had monsoon rains every day but today.

                                 Climbing higher and higher we can see the Barron River below.

The train stopped for 15 minutes so we could get off and take some photos of the breath taking Barron River waterfalls from this view point.

There is also a gondola that takes you for 7 miles over the rain forest.  That was another tour option.

        We reached Kuranda, town at top of the rain forest.  Here we boarded our bus again.

                                  It was a short ride to our next stop at the Rain Forest Station.

Here we boarded amphibious army ducks for a slow ride through the rain forest.  The ducks were built in Detroit back during WWII but now used for tour purposes.

                      Narrow trail for the duck and very muddy today due to recent rains.

                                                                         Fan palms

               Our driver and guide was a nice young lady with a lot of experience in the "bush".

Only animal we saw on our 40 minute duck ride was a turtle lying on a log.  Not a great part of our tour.

                              There was another duck behind us with the rest of our tour group.

                                                                        Driver/guide

                                                         She said this was a "bush turkey".

           After the duck ride we visited the wildlife park with animals indigenous to Australia.

                                                                    Tasmanian Devil

                                                                       Kangaroo

                                                                         Dingo

                                                                        Big iguana

                                                                              Croc

                                                                               Lizard

                                                                            Big croc

                                                                        Barramundi

                                                                         Couple koalas

                                                                             Koala

Driving back to the ship past sugar cane fields.  Sugar cane is their #2 economic driver after tourism.

        We were back on the bus at 12:30 for our ride back to the ship.  They stopped in downtown Cairns to let folks off who wanted to stay and shop.  I was back on the ship by 1:15pm.  Dropped my stuff off at the suite and headed up to La Veranda for some spaghetti for lunch.  

        I immediately started the uploading of my numerous photos taken today.  That was successful but the internet was so bad this afternoon in the port that I could not put them on this blog post.  Kus said it would be better after we departed the port.  Well, that was not until 9pm.

        So I finally gave up after a couple hours of trying.  We had our usual cocktail time before dinner in Compass Rose.

        Tonight's menu.  We both had the Australian braised beef short ribs and tiger shrimp.  The tiger shrimp were tasty but very small.

        There was no entertainment tonight.  Just a sail away thing up on deck 11 & 12 at 9pm as we departed Cairns.  I kept trying to put photos on the blog from sailing and finally at 10:15 I could finally do it.  It is now 11:20pm as I am about to post this.  Rebecca beat me to bed for the first time.  I hope the ship's internet is much better tomorrow.

        We will be anchoring at Cooktown tomorrow morning by 7am.  It is a tender port and new one for us.  We have an afternoon tour planned.