My coach to Townsville doesn't leave until tomorrow morning, so I decided to use my last free day in Northern Queensland by taking the Scenic Train to Kuranda. This, if you are just passing through the area on your way further north, is considered the traditionally touristy thing to do.

The village of Kuranda is a small outpost at the northern end of the Atherton Tablelands which happily thrives on the influx of tourists to its Zoo, Aviary, Butterfly Farm and outback style pub. Upon arrival, I headed straight for the market which was overflowing with Aboriginal artefacts and souvenirs - this was probably the first time I'd seen a truly tourist oriented market since arriving in Australia and it was great fun to root around trying to separate the genuinely great finds from the cheap tackiness. With it's wealth of touristy attractions and markets, Kuranda is the sort of place best enjoyed with company - when I returned here in 2002 with Eloise, we had a great time trying not to be pecked to death by birds in the huge dome aviary and walking through the butterfly house covered in tiny colourful flapping wings. On that occasion, we also discovered a market trader who really wanted to hard-sell us a Didgeridoo and spent a good ten minutes after finding out that I co-ran a website for unsigned bands in the UK explaining to me how much respect he had for British music. He was a really convincing salesman, too, until I figured out that his only knowledge of and sole basis for liking British music was that somebody had told him about Jamiroquai's "didge" player Wallis Buchanan. I really want to say that this logic sounded to me like virtual insanity, but I shall restrain myself.

Despite all that Kuranda has to offer, it isn't initially the village itself which attracts people to it. A visit to Northern Queensland just isn't complete without riding the famous scenic railway out to Kuranda and returning via the Skyrail. The rail journey passes through some of the most incredible scenery the Atherton Tablelands have to offer, past towering waterfalls and across seemingly bottomless ravines. The Skyrail, on the other hand, is a cable car which passes right over the top of the rainforest and allows you to gain a perspective otherwise unavailable without chartering a light aircraft. In fact the Skyrail is something of a feat of engineering, being over seven kilometres in length and having an intermediate stop in the middle of the rainforest where I was able to jump off and take a walk. And when I say "jump off", I mean it quite literally - none of that stopping and opening doors rubbish here, just jump off as you sail through the station or don't get off at all.

The outward train journey was the first route created between Kuranda and the coast during the Gold Rush of the 1880s when the miners found themselves blocked into the mountains by flood and in real danger of starving to death if a path wasn't cut to civilisation. It's hard to believe, riding the railway today, that it wasn't built with any regard to the view the line affords as it cuts through the rock face on the very edge of steep gorges and veers off suddenly at the very moment you expect to plummet over the edge. The rail link took decades to construct and was built in three stages by teams of labourers working around the clock to provide a viable route for food to reach the miners and gold to get back to the coast. Small towns sprung up at many points along the line to support the workers, and at the height of construction several of these boasted hotels and casinos. Phase two of the project was given to a contractor who gave it a brief go before shrugging his shoulders and announcing that it couldn't be done, at which point the project was handed over to a second firm who managed to stay on the job for three weeks before complaining that the forest was impenetrable and only an idiot would try to cut a railway line through it. The job was finally finished by the Government itself, who clearly had interests in the gold getting to where it needed to be as soon as possible, and today we have the Kuranda Scenic Railway to thank them for. Governments do, sometimes, get things in order.

The Skyrail is also a truly awe-inspiring piece of engineering, although it's a much more recent addition to the area having only been in operation since the mid-nineties. Sweeping low over the tops of the trees, the cable cars all have panoramic windows which allow you to appreciate the rainforest without tramping all over it, although, as I mentioned earlier, there is a mid-way stop at Red Peak at which passengers can get off and either be escorted safely along a boardwalk by guides or explore under their own steam. The Skyrail is a very peaceful experience, and as I passed over the canopy this afternoon there was very little sound other than the calls of the animals below. The view is as spectacular as you could hope for and I could see nothing but trees in all directions as far as the horizon. It almost made me hope that the Skyrail would break down and leave me stuck up there overnight instead of having to return to civilisation at ground level, especially as the television news tonight is leading me to believe that the roads I was planning on taking westward from Townsville over the next couple of days are flooded and that continuing with this trip in the way I had planned may be a bit of a problem.

About Simon and Burfords Travels:

Simon Burford is a UK based travel writer. He will be re-publishing his travel blogs, chapters from his books and other miscellaneous rantings on these pages over the coming weeks and months, and the entry on this page may not necessarily reflect todays date.