Kuranda

12 May
Cairns
Rainy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon

Yesterday was our trip up to Kuranda and Rainforest Station. I am sorry to report that it was a little disappointing, owing only in part to the weather. The day's schedule seemed poorly planned, with unexpected gaps in the early part of the day. Since the tour company was arranging it, I expected something better.

Our driver picked us up at 9am. In other years, he would have taken us to Sky Rail, a unique cable car system that takes its passengers on a 7 km ride above the rainforest canopy. But since Sky Rail was closed for maintenance, we were scheduled to go to a butterfly sanctuary at 9:45. Since it takes less than a half-hour to get from Cairns to Kuranda, we arrived about 20 minutes early -- the trouble is that it was too early to really do anything in the village.

The butterfly garden is a lovely exhibit, and a great place to see the butterflies of the rainforest in a controlled settings. We saw Ulysses butterflies, the brilliant blue ones typically seen high in the canopy. We saw the Australian birdwing butterfly, another typical resident of the rainforest, and many others. Our guide was very thorough in explaining the life cycle of the butterfly, as well as the care that the Garden has taken in recreating an environment conducive to the species represented. It's a good place, and I hope make it a regular part of the course.

Our time there was up at 10:30, but we were not due at Rainforest Station until 11:30, so we had an hour to spend in Kuranda. Now, this is not a bad thing at all; Kuranda is a cute little tourist village and a great place to spend far too much money on souvenirs. Since we would not be served lunch until 1pm, some of us has a mid-morning snack -- I had an okay kangaroo meat pie. Some of the students discovered the photo gallery of a well known Australian photographer and ordered a few prints.

Rainforest Station has five venues: a wildlife park, an Aboriginal dance theater, a Dreamtime Walk, a buffet lunch, and an Army 'Duck' tour of a patch of rainforest. We've done this many times, and in various orders. The rain put a damper on the wildlife park, but we still received a competent show. This was also the chance for the students to see a couple of predators up close, a quoll and a dingo. Since the rain would later prevent our seeing large crocodiles on the Daintree, it was their best chance to see just how big they can get.

The Aboriginal dancing is always humorous. The Pamagirri Dance Company was among the first such troupes created in the 1990s after Cairns became a tourism center, and though is fortunes have been eclipsed by the larger Tjapukai enterprise, they do alright. They perform a series of short dances, getting the audience involved, and generally displaying a very good sense of humor. Of course, they only do dances appropriate for children -- after all, Aborigines think of whitefellas as children, so it's consistent with their dealings with whites.

The dancing is followed by a 'Dreamtime Walk,' a short program in which we are instructed in playing a didgeridoo, witness spear throwing, and learn to throw a boomerang. Some aboriginal instructors talk a bit about bush 'tucker' (food) and bush medicine, but ours did not. A bit disappointing. On the other hand, our guide had to do a lot of his work in the rain, wearing nothing but his loincloth and a bit of paint that started washing off. so, on balance, the Aboriginal experience was okay.

Lunch is very good: lots of choices, and all very fresh and tasty. Since it is autumn here, winter squash dishes do show up. The Rainforest Station kitchen prepares a pumpkin soup that is wonderful. When I first had this a few years ago, it inspired me in my own kitchen, and I now serve a squash soup to the family from time to time.

The 'Duck' tour was bad from the start. The ducks are converted U.S. Army DUKWs, an amphibious vehicle; these were abandoned by the US at the conclusion of WWII. They are thus over 60 years old! Ours broke down once on the tour, and we needed a mechanic to come and restart the vehicle. But that was not the problem.

The tour consists of a ride through a bit of rainforest patch, along with a bit of a ride on a reservoir lake on the Station grounds. It's a chance to see some tropical rainforest plants up close, and a chance to glimpse some wildlife. Of course, to do this, one needs to look up, hard to do when the vehicle is covered on top. Though this is a rollback cover and the students and in were in good raingear, the driver left the canopy on, rolling it back occasionally, resulting in big dump-s of water on some students. And the driver slid off the road! The ducks move very slowly, maybe 4 mph, and they have a large turning radius, so some maneuvers are a little tricky; turns that one would easily negotiate in a car become three-point turns, maybe even five-point turns. But that's normal. However, on a level stretch after a not very difficult turn, the driver hit a mud patch and slid into the trees on the right. We had to abandon the duck and wait for another to come pick us up. It was a mediocre tour and a but of poor driving.

There's nothing that we do at Rainforest Station that we could not do elsewhere, and there are other worthwhile experiences that we could do with other tours that we have come to trust. So, we will probably abandon Rainforest Station for next year. We'll still do Sky Rail, and add the Butterfly Garden, the Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Park, and perhaps the Venom Zoo, and so we should have a good bit of fun.

This is the following day. We have returned from the Daintree, but I will write about this very pleasant experience in my next entry. I should warn you that we are entering the portion of the course that involves some camping, so my entries will become spottier, as internet access will become less consistent.