Cairns, the Reef and Kuranda (Tropical North Queensland)

Not visiting Tropical North Queensland (TNQ) while living so close by as Brisbane (approx. 2 hrs flying time) is a shame! It surely is a must-visit place in Queensland to experience life in the tropics. So, between 8th and 11th Aug 2013 I visited TNQ covering Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef and the rainforest village Kuranda.

Cairns is a much smaller city compared to Brisbane, but is at the heart of tourist attractions in TNQ because of its easy accessibility to two main attractions -- the Great Barrier Reef and the tropical rainforests. I stayed in one of the sixty backpackers places in Cairns, called Caravellas 149, located facing the beach, at a walking distance (10 mins) from the city center and 10 mins taxi drive from the airport. I hadn't stayed in a backpackers place for quite a long time now; probably my last stay was in Yokohama in Dec 2009. So, it was fun experience it all over again, particularly by meeting other backpackers like myself from different parts of the world, and chatting, sharing a drink or cooking together with them. However, I opted for a single room (though with a shared bathroom) and not a multi-bedder dorm; I guess either gone are those heavy budgeting young student days or I have grown more comfortable with my small own privacy. Either way, it was great fun to recollect and relive some of those backpacker experiences I had while traveling around Europe (in 2006) when I did the real backpacking.

Cairns has a city center with a small square and shops, supermarkets, cafes and restaurants all located close to the square. I also noticed a museum and probably a gallery as well close to the square, but did not manage to visit these. The Woolworths supermarket is the main place to look for groceries for most backpackers around the square.

Cairns is an ideal base-camp for traveling around TNQ. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Cairns formed a major hub for constructing all major infrastructure in TNQ, especially the railway system. The railway tracks leading into the rainforests across the mountains start at Cairns, and the construction of this railway line is considered an engineering marvell. Cairns also got its international aiport about 50 years ago.

The Great Barrier Reef or just the Reef for short is the main attraction for which tourists, dive enthusiasts, marine biologists and other curious travellers visit TNQ. There are many boats, guided tours and diving courses taking off from Cairns to different locations on the Reef every day. There are several spots and islands on the area covered by the Reef from where visitors can explore this marvellous underwater creation through diving or snorkelling. I opted for a tour called 'The Reef Experience', which was a day-long tour (starting at 8am and returning at 4:30pm) and covered two spots on the Reef for diving and snorkeling. The tour included an introductory guided dive for 15 mins at the Norman Reef in the late morning, and a slightly longer (30 mins) and slightly more advanced dive (accompanied by a marine biologist) at the Hastings Reef in the afternoon especially for those who where were comfortable or experienced with diving. This tour, though not the most economical of ones, is a great way for first-timers like me to get introduced to the coral life. The advantageous part of this tour is that the boat is faster than the more economical tours and therefore ensures more time (at least 5hrs) at the Reef. This gave me sufficient time for practicing a bit before diving and picking some dive lessons, apart from giving time for snorkelling at the Reef, which is a more comfortable way to see and appreciate the coral life for first-timers like myself.

At the Reef, though I couldn't dive for long but managed to snorkell quite a bit, I spotted beautiful corals, fishes and other marine life that gave color and richness to this manificient underwater creation. Colorful fishes were swimming in between the corals and feeding on food growing on the corals. There were fishes of many kinds -- some brightly striped, some of radiant blue, some small and some quite big. I noticed lots of clams and also a small black eel-ish creature on the ocean floor, which I was told was a sea cucumber. Some co-travellers on board managed to spot a few reef sharks. These sharks are much smaller than the attacking kind, and are usually afraid of humans and so do not attack, but instead swim away very quickly. The marine biologist on board told us that the Reef is home to about 2000 species of fishes, which is far more than the corals reefs in the Carribean which have about 400 species. This makes the Reef truely diverse and rich.

Scientists say that over the years, pollution, fishing, whaling and other human activities have been affecting the Reef, and at the current rate the Reef might considerably disappear in about 20 years' time. Therefore, there has been a huge step-up in attempts to conserve the Reef. Australia, being closest to the Reef, has invested considerable funds into Reef research. After experiencing, albeit very minutely, the colors and richness of the Reef life I feel that it would be the greatest disaster to lose such a wonderful creation, and every attempt should be made to conserve the Reef in its fullest beauty.

While heading towards the Norman reef, we very briefly spotted a whale. Though quite far away, we briefly saw it blow up water. That was quite amazing.

Kuranda is a small village probably developed for tourists to get a feel of the rainforests. Its about 2 hours' scenic train ride from Cairns. The Kuranda Scenic Railway runs across mountains covered with coniferous forests, passing through several tunnels and bridges, and offering tourists a magnificient view of the thick woods, gorges and waterfalls on the way to Kuranda. The most beautiful spot on the train ride is the Barron falls where the train makes a brief halt for passengers to enjoy the scenery and take pictures. The Barron falls powers a hydro-electric station which supplies a part of the electricity needs for Kuranda.

Kuranda has a small market selling local and aborginal artefacts and handmade goods. There are several shops selling goods (hats, belts, wallets, jackets, etc.) made from kangaroo, crocodile and cow leather. There are also ample cafes, bars and restaurants to hang around.

The jungle trail into the rainforests starts off close to the Kuranda railway station, passing along the Barron river, and then into two half- to one-hour stretches of rainforests. The trail doesn't go very deep into the woods, but one gets a reasonable feel of the kind of trees and the environment within the forests. However, its difficult to spot any creatures along these trails, not even snakes or marsupials, but occassionally one gets to hear the birds chirping and singing. I did notice a large beautiful butterfly, black in color with a bright red spot on each of its wings, fluttering around a shrub with small flowers. Some of the shrubs had sharp spines on their light green stems as a way of defence from preys. Though I visited these rainforests in the non-rainy season, I heard that most tourists trek through these forests during the rainy season which coincides with the summer (Dec to early Feb) in Queensland.

For the return I chose the Skyrail, which is a scenic cable-car ride back to Cairns. This is a lovely way to get a bird's eye view of the rainforests from the top. The area covered by these forests is very large, stretching across several mountains and flat lands. Moving closer to Cairns, the ocean and patches of the Reef start coming into visibility from the Skyrail, and its an enjoyable experience to see the rainforests meet the Reef.

Another sight worth remembering is of the bats and flying foxes hanging on trees. While heading to the Cairns railway station our tour driver stopped under a tree to have us take a look at these flying mammals. There were probably hundreds of them making squeeking noises while hanging from tree branches. That was quite a sight.