Mission Beach to Kuranda(July)
From Mission Beach we are headed to Kuranda up in the hills above Cairns. As, obviously, we didn’t
know what the area was like we decide to do our shopping at Innisfail en route rather than try and find
a shopping centre in Cairns, and we do know that Kuranda is only a small place so therefore unlikely
to have reasonably priced food shops. Parking for the shops at Innisfail was not easy and we had
quite a walk to Coles, and it was raining, when we’d finished I stayed in the dry and Clive went to fetch
the car so we didn’t have to push the trolley so far in the rain. However, we needn’t have bothered,
on the road into Cairns there are several large shopping centres we could have gone to, but quite
often these centres are tucked away from the main highway and not always easy to find. Never mind.
One entertaining incident on the drive to Cairns was we stopped at a BP station for lunch and asked
for pie and chips for two, and the girl looks at us and says, do you want 2 plates? Yes please. We
eventually got our pies on 2 plates and 2 huge baskets of chips, one would have been sufficient but we
were expecting our chips on the plate with the pie, we then had the audacity to ask for a knife and fork
and she looked at us in amazement and said do you want 2 lots, yes please says us – makes you laugh
and wonder what normally happens.
Negotiated Cairns quite well, straight up the highway turn left when you see the sign for Captain
Cook Highway and straight on from there – no problems. To get to Kuranda you drive up a mountain,
very steep, very windy (that is a phrase I’ve got used to typing), as you climb up the mountain for slower
towing vehicle there are run-offs to allow faster vehicle to overtake. If you time your entry into these run
offs and re entry correctly you do not have to lose your momentum or cause a traffic jam. At the top of the mountain
there’s a set of traffic
lights would you believe, I didn’t, and we turned the wrong way, did a few turns round Kuranda then
back to the lights to go the correct way to the caravan park. The park is built in the middle of the
rainforest, very pretty, clean and pleasant. Our site wasn’t the best, possibly because we asked for
one with easy access to the showers, but it was next to the barbeque and shelter so we didn’t have
to put up the awning to protect us from the rain, which was still falling intermittently and continued
to do so whilst we were here. Unfortunately we didn’t have any doormats (which wasn’t a problem at
Mission Beach) as Clive had left them behind in Townsville, so the inside of the van got a bit mucky and
we had to do a little more cleaning than normal. Another drama, plugged the television in and it blew up
so Clive happily consigned it to the scrap heap.
Purchasing new door mats and a television should not have
proved a problem with all the shopping centres and a large city in the close vicinity, but it was not as easy as
it sounds. First shopping centre, no electrical retailers and no door mats. We got directions on how to find a
Retravision store but without a printed map and compass bearings that proved too difficult so we drove
into Cairns, deciding Myer’s was our best
option, found the store and followed directions to the carpark, only to discover it had a 2m clearance,
not high enough for us, unfortunately we were now in a one way system with no way out other than
jumping the kerbs, which we did, much to the consternation of the drivers behind us. We found another
parking spot right out the front of the store on the roadside, which was great. Buying the television was
easy, but mats were not so easy, we ended up stopping at a small hardware store on the roadside near
the airport and managed to get one there – thank goodness. We won’t leave a camp site again without
double checking we’ve got everything.
Whilst here we travelled up and down the mountain to Kuranda on several occasions, I don’t think
once we did it without me holding my breath, there is quite a lot of traffic on the road and as I said it
is steep and windy and we are not used to this type of driving. Luckily anything short of a
vertical cliff does not phase Clive.
Kuranda is an interesting place, it is only open between 10 and 3 (with a few exceptions) to cater for
the tourists. It is the home of the skyrail. You can either get a train or go on the skyrail down the
mountain and back, I being the consummate chicken (and will regret it for a long time) was too
scared to go on the skyrail but learned that my fears were really groundless (but I don’t like heights
full stop) and the views were spectacular. The skyrail runs every hour between Kuranda and Cairns
and the tourists pour into the town. There are two very good markets, one for craft items and one for
fruit, vegies. food, and craft items.
The Kuranda butterfly sanctuary is wonderful with some very lovely butterflies and moths, I wish
I’d taken the video camera with me the day we went because I might have got some good footage
for a change, because trying to take still photos was a little difficult. Butterflies close their wings
when they rest, and that’s the only time you can photograph them, and it is their wings that are the
most beautiful. The number, variety and colour of the butterflies were amazing
We drove to Mareeba (the next town) for lunch, stopped off at the Coffee Works, where you can have
tastings of all the local grown coffees, see the beans being roasted (weekdays) and processed. Had a
very good lunch at one of the pubs $9.95 roast vegies. and dessert, only thing wrong, for the first
time since we arrived in Queensland we were served by a sour faced waitress with an attitude to match,
there had to be one. When we returned to Kuranda the tourists had all left and the town had closed up. We
wanted to buy some drinks so drove to the pub which had a drive through, waited for someone to
come and serve us, nothing, hopped out and went inside, still I waited, eventually (after about 15 mins.)
I got served, I can remember there was some problem with the cider I wanted to buy but can’t think quite
what it was, went to pay, handed over the card and was told I had to get the cash out of the machine
in the bar first then pay – unbelievable! I dread to think how long that episode took just to purchase
a six pack of cider and a bottle of wine. Needless to say we did not return to purchase anything else.
Parked behind us at the caravan park was a Professor who lived there semi-permanently and did
research on the area, he also conducted night walks to see special types of frogs, glow worms and
nocturnal animals. I decided not to attempt it, I have enough trouble seeing where I’m going walking
in daylight let alone at night in the middle of the rainforest, but Clive went and whilst apparently it
wasn’t the best night to see things I think he enjoyed it and saw more than most people do. As we
were not going to do the skyrail trip we drove to the lookout for Baron Falls, which are the falls you
see as you go on the skyrail. We parked the car and followed the signs, down and down, after about
20 mins. I decided to stop and let Clive carry on, I still had to climb back up – he carried on and
on his return said it wasn’t really worth the effort. However, on this little trip we took a side turning
to another lookout which was spectacular – you look down the valley between two mountains and
you can see Cairns shining white in the background and then the ocean.
When we drove into this area there were two combi vans there, in one we could see a chap with his feet up having a nap and
as we stopped and got out, these two people emerged from the bush one a very 1960’s hippy looking
guy and a young woman with more earrings on her than I own. I have to admit we were a little
apprehensive being the ultra conservatists that we are, but we got chatting to them and they were
great. He was actually a property developer from Noosa, and financed his travelling in that way
and she was a traveller he had met up with, she had her own vehicle and they were camped there
for a few days, they invited us to join them, but wimps that we are settled for our caravan park,
they said the view at night was even better with all the lights etc. and I can well believe them. While
we were talking three young women walked in, they had walked up from Kuranda and asked if we
could give them a lift back, unfortunately we had absolutely no room to put them but the guy in the
other combi was awake by now and getting ready to leave so they got a lift down with him. It was
quite amazing talking to the ‘hippy’ guy and just goes to show you can’t judge a book by its cover,
and proved to us how judgemental we can be and we like to think of ourselves as fairly broad minded!!
Before we left Kuranda I actually had to put the towels into the dryer as because of the very high
humidity and the amount of rain we’d had they were very damp, I had managed to get a couple of loads
of washing properly dry, but these were not going to dry between early morning shower and leaving.
On the way down the mountain there is a lookout that has been set up in memory of the sailors that
lost their lives in the Battle of the Coral Sea during WW2 and it is a wonderful view looking over the
tops of the trees to the ocean and beyond. The drive from Cairns towards Mossman is one of the
most beautiful we have been on so far, the road hugs the coast and the rainforest is on the other
side, some lovely places to stop if you wanted but again a very windy road, but each corner brings
forth a different angle and lovely view.
Copyright 2000. All rights reserved.