Cairns to Innisfail (includes Kuranda Skyrail and Millaa Millaa Falls)

Hello all
After a few days in Cairns waiting for mail, cleaning everything, and taking the camper off (to give the Ute a rest) I headed off again.

Cairns Foreshore free pool

Cairns Foreshore free pool

Before leaving Cairns I headed to the Kuranda Scenic Railway for the day. Arriving at Freshwater Station to board the train. The negative on this trip is they allocate seats............this meant I was on the wrong side of the train for photos and seated with parents that had no interest in controlling their 3 screaming uncontrollable monsters. The outcome was, no good photos and a headache by the time I arrived at Kuranda. While I had an enjoyable day otherwise I would not do this Train Ride again unless they could Guarantee me a window seat.

crossing Stony Creek Bridge

In 1882 the miners of Herberton were on the brink of starvation, unable to get supplies due to flooding. Dense jungle and cliffs with sheer drops of up to 327 metres and a slope as steep as 45 degrees were death traps for workers. Somehow, without modern equipment but simply fortitude, dynamite and bare hands the team eventually finished the job.
After removing 2.3 million metres of earthworks, creating 15 tunnels, 93 curves, dozens of bridges and 75 kilometres of track, marked the completion of Stoney Creek Bridge. Shortly after in June of 1891 the line was open for everyone to enjoy.

Stony Creek Falls

Stony Creek Bridge

A 10 minute stop at Baron Falls Station was made for a photo opportunity.

Baron Falls

Baron Station

A few hours were spent in Kuranda before heading to the Kuranda Skyrail Terminal for the return journey. The Skyrail is just as impressive as the Scenic Railway.

crossing the Baron River on Skyrail

gliding just above the rainforest

The statistics of the Skyrail are fairly impressive.......
7.5 kilometres long, all towers were lifted in to place by Helicopter to avoid disturbing the rainforest, the tallest tower is 40.5 metres high, there are 114 gondola cabins. The Skyrail was opened in 1995 and there are two stations where you can break your trip and go for a walk to a lookout or walk in the rainforest

looking towards Yorkies Knob

Crossing over the Kennedy Highway

Cairns in the distance

After all this, it was back on with the camper and head back up the hill to Atherton.

 This way a bit of a shock to the system............that night in Atherton got down to 7c...........i froze.

Millaa Millaa Falls

Millaa Millaa Falls

I wasn't ready for the cold nights so I have hightailed it back to the Coast to thaw out.

Babinda Rocks

 Seeing a rather non nondescript sign on the Highway, I decided to have a look at Babinda Rocks.

Babinda Rocks

There was a young guy swimming here when I arrived, and although this doesn't look deep, the sandy section you can see about half way was over chest deep. The Water was crystal clear.
The parcel I was waiting on in Cairns was a Solar Monitor I purchased online.
The display on my Solar Regulator is very hard to see in sunlight and gives very little information on what the Panel is doing.

  
This little gadget goes inline and gives 

 Current (Amps/A) at the present moment
 Voltage (Volts/V) at the present moment
 Power (Watts/W) at the present moment
 Total Amps (Amp hours/Ah) since device initialised
 Total Power (Watt hours/Wh) since device initialised
 Highest Voltage Maximum (Vm) since device initialised
 Highest Power Peak (Watt Peak/Wp) since device initialised
 Highest Current Peak (Amp Peak/Ap) since device initialised

This should make knowing what my Solar
Panels are actually doing a low simpler.

Another thing...............This site is fast approaching 10,000 hits and there are another few thousand hits from my older blogs. For this I thank you for taking an interest in my travels. Updating the blog is fairly time consuming, but knowing that people are interested spurs me on and makes it all worthwhile.
After a laundry day here tomorrow I will be heading to Paronella Park and Mission Beach, so stay tuned.
Bye for now........