We left the Tablelands driving down on Gillies highway, a very windy, steep and picturesque road. We were heading to Freshwater just north of Cairns to be close to the train station as we had booked ourselves on the Kuranda scenic railway up to yes - Kuranda and the skyrail cable car back.

The Kuranda narrow gauge scenic railway (37kms of it) was an engineering feat of tremendous magnitude, so the guide says and I would have to give credit where credit is due as it took around 1500 men 5 years (1886-1891) to cut up through the rainforest along the Barron river gorge to Kuranda. It involved removal of 2.3 million cubic metres of earth, 106 cuttings, 55 viaducts and 15 hand carved tunnels. Gold and tin mines in the tablelands in the early 1880’s were having trouble getting supplies in and their gold and tin out and a cry for help came after massive floods in 1882 resulted in near starvation for many. Jim Moffat (you might remember) of Herberton tin mining fame was one such cry. Cairns at this time was in decline having lost a lot of its trade to nearby Port Douglas so it jumped at the chance to increase trade by building a railway up to a settlement called Kuranda (settled in 1888 in anticipation of the railway) near the mines.

Kuranda nowadays is just a very touristy (far too touristy for us) stop selling tat where you spend an hour or so before getting the train or skyrail back down. We didn’t hang around long. I did nearly buy a purse as mine is falling apart but just felt odd about it being kangaroo leather. They cull many each year as numbers are getting out of control but I still couldn’t do it. They make good use of all parts of the animal. The male parts make good adornment to bottle openers! I could have bought a Cane toad purse but that was just a dried toad with its inners removed and looked gross. They are also a nuisance and culled. They were introduced to eat the Sugar Cane Beetle but someone didn't do enough research as the beetles live up in the cane and the toads couldn't jump that high so instead they munched their way through other wildlife. Yet another example of bad biological control (when will we learn?).

The trip down in the cable car over the top of the rainforest was spectacular. The rainforest dates back about 120 million years and is the oldest continually surviving tropical rainforest on earth with examples of plants that existed millions of years ago when it was home to Dinosaurs.

After this we headed towards our most northerly destination the village of Daintree. The village is tiny with just a few touristy shops and some B and B’s. It’s the place to get river trips on the massive Daintree river to see the Saltwater crocodiles (or Salties as the Aussies say. We have noticed that they seem to abbreviate everything). This time of year the water should still be cool so they come out to sun themselves but due to the high temperatures they are tending to sit in the cool water at the bottom of the river so sightings are not good. We did manage to see a couple of adults and a baby.

Finally, we are heading south via Port Douglas, which is tiny compared with Cairns. On the way we passed a sign to ‘Historic WW2 Bomb Site’ 3Km. We thought we’d have a look. It was a memorial to the only civilian casualty of WW2 Japanese bombing on the East coast of Australia. Fortunately, the little girl was only slightly hurt and made a full recovery! Obviously in a country with little history you have to make the most of anything going!

We had splashed out and booked a Barrier reef tour with helicopter flight. Peter decided to add some scuba diving to this. The day before it rained and rained and rained.

On Wednesday evenings you can go to the yacht club and put your name down for crewing on any boats that go out. Peter said you get chosen rather than first come first served. Any busty blondes obviously getting chosen over middle aged male tourists so he was not too optimistic about his chances. But on the night despite there being about 60 names on the list he did get chosen together with 11 others by a couple in their 60’s who had a rather large catamaran. The only condition is that you have a drink and something to eat in the Yacht club afterwards.

Our Reef tour was out to Agincourt Reef which is one of the 10 so called Ribbon reefs running parallel, for about 200kms, along the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef. The boat trip out to the platform takes about 1.5 hours and they were offering sea sickness tablets. If they thought you needed them it must be rough- is what I thought so took one. Some didn’t and especially on the trip back there were sick bags in use all around us.

The Great Barrier Reef, which Agincourt is part of, extends for 2300kms along north east Australia. It is not continuous but made of 2900 separate reefs. The corals have developed on a massive shallow continental shelf (adjacent to the Coral Sea trench), which has adequate sunlight, warmth and low nutrients. The corals themselves consist of millions or probably billions of small jellyfish like animals in limestone skeletons.

As soon as we arrived Peter went of Scuba diving and I went on a semi- submersible. I saw some amazing fish, plus turtles and a Leopard shark. Afterwards we had a lunch (a massive buffet) and then went on a helicopter flight over the reef. This was definitely the best way to appreciate its size. Peter went scuba diving again for half price as the first time his session was shortened by a couple who couldn’t get to grips with the technique and then had to come back because of an ear problem. I went out again in the semi-submersible. The last half hour we spent in the underwater observatory.

Captain Cook sailed these waters in Endeavour during June of 1770. He struck a reef and had to spend time in Cooktown repairing the boat before sailing back to England.

Peter has been for a couple of runs along the beach at Port Douglas, and a beautiful beach it is. He has seen a few people walking dogs but no swimmers. This could be something to do with signs all along the beach saying ‘Danger Crocodiles do not go in water’. Someone recently sighted a 14 foot croc swimming along near the beach and in May this year a woman was taken by a croc from a nearby beach, whilst taken a midnight swim. The Local Council after this event made a statement saying’you can’t legislate for human stupidity’. That probably didn’t go down well with her relatives.