Glide up above the rainforest
Skyrail is the cableway that takes you above the rainforest, through to the small town of Kuranda. The embarkation point near Cairns is at Smithfield, about 15 minutes from the city centre of Cairns. The cableway itself is 7.5km long and there are 2 stops on the way.
The temptation when going up is to look up the mountain, but the best view is actually looking back the way you come.
Red Peak is the first stop and there's a boardwalk to walk in the rainforest.
These frames really made me laugh, they're instagram frames. I had to wait quite a long time to take a picture of them as people were posing with them!
The view from the lookout with the instagram frames. The gap in the far right of the picture is the weir at the Barron river which is part of the first hydro-electric plant in Australia, it was built in 1935. Quite the feat in those days!
The rainforest.
I thought I would pay the extra and go for 'Diamond view' the carriage had a perspex floor so you could look down into the canopy. Not great if you're scared of heights! I regretted getting the Diamond view, I am fine with heights, it was more that you had to wait longer for the right carriage! There's one in every 10, so people were quickly getting on a regular carriage while you waited for your special one.
View of Barron Falls from the Skyrail.
Barron Falls, October is the end of the dry season, so the falls weren't huge and there wasn't a large amount of water going over them.
This was an interesting display at the Barron Falls stop. Behind the falls is a hydro-electric plant, originally built in 1935, to get up into the rainforest to work on it, people and materials needed to come up over the forest. They used a Flying Fox (I had to really think what they're called outside of Australia. It came to me eventually 'a zipline') This was the last type they used, as they became more sophisticated, it had a roof!
Going over the Barron River just before coming into Kuranda.
The Skyrail station at Kuranda.
Using the cableway to travel over the rainforest was lovely, it's very quiet and you just glide along looking at the view.
Skyrail is the cableway that takes you above the rainforest, through to the small town of Kuranda. The embarkation point near Cairns is at Smithfield, about 15 minutes from the city centre of Cairns. The cableway itself is 7.5km long and there are 2 stops on the way.
The temptation when going up is to look up the mountain, but the best view is actually looking back the way you come.
Red Peak is the first stop and there's a boardwalk to walk in the rainforest.
These frames really made me laugh, they're instagram frames. I had to wait quite a long time to take a picture of them as people were posing with them!
The view from the lookout with the instagram frames. The gap in the far right of the picture is the weir at the Barron river which is part of the first hydro-electric plant in Australia, it was built in 1935. Quite the feat in those days!
Using the cableway to travel over the rainforest was lovely, it's very quiet and you just glide along looking at the view.
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