There are two trains from Cairns Railway Station to Kuranda Rainforest every day, departing at 8:30 and 9:30 respectively. Yunluo and An Qingju took the 9:30 train, but it did not depart until about 9:45.
The railway from Cairns to Kuranda Rainforest was originally built to solve transportation problems in various places during the rainy season. It was planned to be divided into three sections. The first section started construction in 1887 and the last section was completed in 1910. Later, it was gradually developed into a tourist route.
Along the way, the train moved slowly through the rain forest. At first, Yunluo and An Qingju were full of excitement; but with the regular sound of the wheels hitting the rails, Yunluo and An Qingju felt a little drowsy.
When they passed a bridge on the way, a waterfall cascaded down from the mountain. It was not spectacular but it was amazing, which reawakened An Qingju's spirit. Not far from the end, Yunluo and An Qingju arrived at the most famous attraction along the way - Barron Waterfall.
The train stopped here for 10 minutes. People rushed to take pictures on the viewing platform. It felt a bit like traveling in China, haha!
At about 11:20, Yunluo and An Qingju arrived at their destination, the town of Kuranda. As soon as they walked up the stairs to the roadside, An Qingju made a major discovery: a group of jungle green ants (oecophyllasp). These green ants have green tails and build nests among the branches and leaves of trees. They have a strong sense of territory.
An Qingju once tried to touch them with a branch, but these green ants did not turn around and run away like other ants. Instead, they arched their bodies and opened their upper jaws to meet the challenge, showing how fierce they were. Despite this, it is said that it is a local delicacy. It is true that there is always a way to defeat something else!
We walked into the town. Because it was the off-season, there were not many people and some shops were still closed. There was nothing special about this town. It had a strong commercial atmosphere and was full of shops selling opals and handicrafts.
After Yunluo and An Qingju walked around the street for a while, they chose a German hot dog shop on the side of the road for lunch. The owner and his family were probably all German. The hot dog was $5.95, and it was okay except that it was a little salty.
After lunch, Yunluo and An Qingjue strolled back to the train station, planning to head to the river in another direction to try their luck. There were many entertainment projects along the river, and Yunluo and An Qingjue had planned to take an amphibious vehicle to explore the depths of the rainforest, but due to the weather in the previous two days, these entertainment projects were temporarily closed.
There were only Yunluo, An Qingju and four others by the huge river. Looking at the dim river water and the lush rainforest, it seemed as if they were in the depths of the Amazon forest. They wanted to walk along the river into the woods, but the muddy dirt road forced Yunluo and An Qingju to stop there.
The hot weather today was a bit too much for Yunluo and An Qingjue. After returning from the river, they stayed in the store and enjoyed the air conditioning for a while. Then, they decided to take the cable car back home. At this time, Yunluo and An Qingjue found that they had no other tickets except the train tickets they had when they came. How could they get on the cable car?
My friend said that the old man who sent Yunluo and An Qingjue to the train station in the morning had told them that they should just report Yunluo and An Qingjue's names when they got to the cable car station. So that's how it was. I reported Yunluo and An Qingjue's names at the ticket window. Sure enough, the service staff handed over four tickets.
The cable car that Yunluo and An Qingju were going to take was 7.5km long, the longest cable car in the world. There were Barron Falls Station and Red Peak Station in the middle, where you could get off to enjoy the view. When you got on the cable car, all the views became open, with dense rain forests under your feet. There was moist air blowing in from time to time, so An Qingju preferred this section of the cable car ride.
After the cable car stopped at Barron Falls Station, Yunluo and An Qingju got off to explore. The viewing platform here is opposite the viewing platform where the train stopped in the morning, which is on the other side of the waterfall.
This place is closer to the waterfall, so the impact of the scenery is stronger. Of course, the side effect of the strong impact is that there is a lot of water vapor, and if you are not careful, you will be covered with a layer of "raincoat".
As I was looking at the roaring waterfall, a "fallen leaf" suddenly flew towards the water mist. It was a very beautiful rainforest butterfly, with its wings reflecting a striking blue-green color in the sun. After a few turns, it disappeared into the jungle. I later saw a specimen of this butterfly at the visitor center, which cost $79.95.
After leaving Barron Falls, we took the cable car and soon arrived at Hongling Station. Almost no one mentioned this place in the travel guide, so I thought Yunluo and An Qingju would only stay for a short time, but I didn't expect that Yunluo and An Qingju would gain more knowledge about the rainforest here. After getting off the cable car and coming to the viewing channel, there was a simple clock next to the road, and the hands were pointing to the present.
An old man in uniform was waiting by the road. It turned out that Yunluo and An Qingju happened to meet a rainforest guide. This old man should be a descendant of the indigenous people. He held a "small pointer" in his hand and explained along the viewing plank road.
The trees on both sides are teaching materials. The one that impressed An Qingju the most was a tree that the locals called "Wait a minute". The branches of this tree are full of barbs, hanging down on the edge of the plank road. If you are not careful when passing by, you will be caught by it, which will damage your clothes at the least and hurt you at the worst.
So once you encounter it, you need to spend some time to solve the problem, which is the origin of its name. Although this tree is "insidious", it is very good wood after processing. The "teaching stick" in the old man's hand is made of its branches.
As the explanation continued, the audience grew larger and the old man became more excited. Yunluo and An Qingju could only understand a few words because of the large number of specialized words, but the foreign tourists still found it very interesting. The old man would point to the plants nearby and say what kind of furniture this is made of, what kind of seasoning this is, which attracted people's amazement!
In general, the scenery on the return trip today was better than the scenery on the outbound trip, but the overall scenery rating was average. After returning to the city, I first went to drtours to get my credit card back, and then went shopping. I wanted to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant, but it was closed when I got there. In the end, I bought some instant noodles and ham sausage for $5 per person.
Today's weather is once again contrary to the weather forecast. It was sunny in the morning. An Qingju really likes the weather forecast in Cairns. Haha! We have to arrive at the pier at 7:30 today. There are not many people in Cairns on Monday morning, which is very different from the crowded scene in the past two days. The four of us ran wild.
Arrived on time. The crew was already at the dock to greet the tourists. A white double-decker boat was quietly moored at the dock, a bit like a big yacht in a movie.
To avoid seasickness, we found a seat on the first floor and ordered some morning tea and coffee from the bar. Then each of the four of us took an anti-seasickness pill.
After everyone arrived, the crew first distributed fins and diving masks to everyone. Since An Qingju and LD did not wear contact lenses, they asked the crew for diving masks with prescriptions. When getting the diving masks with prescriptions, a certain deposit is required, but Yunluo and An Qingju did not bring any money today and could not remember their credit card numbers.
So the deposit was dropped. The crew finally told Yunluo and An Qingjue to take good care of the masks at all times. Don't lose them, otherwise it would cost a lot of money.
Tie the mask and fins together and put them under the seat. At about 8 o'clock, Yunluo and An Qingju's boat slowly left the harbor and headed for the first destination, Ascay. At this time, the crew gathered all the tourists in the cabin on the first floor and began to introduce today's crew.
There are 7 crew members in total when Sui Yunluo and An Qingju go out to sea, including the captain, bartender, diving instructor, trainee instructor, etc., with a reasonable mix of men and women. It is not tiring to work. Most of these crew members are lively young people. One of the diving instructors is a young man from Beijing who has been in Beijing for 4 months and has endless memories of the spicy hot pot in Beijing.
He is currently studying in Brisbane and is working in Cairns during the summer vacation. After talking about the crew, let's talk about the tourists. There are about 20 tourists today. In addition to Yunluo and An Qingju, there are also a mother and daughter. The others are tourists from Australia and Germany. So, 7 crew members serve more than 20 tourists. Isn't it luxurious?
After introducing the crew, a young man who looked more experienced began to introduce Yunluo and An Qingju to the precautions for going out to sea, how to use diving equipment, how to snorkel, etc. The humorous explanation made everyone laugh from time to time. After the explanation, the divers continued to stay on the first floor.
The diving instructor began to explain the precautions of diving, and the young man acted as a Chinese translator. Since diving is more dangerous, Yunluo and An Qingju listened attentively, afraid of missing a word. The main content was how to balance ear pressure and drain water from the respirator during the dive.
Everyone followed the instructor's explanation and demonstration to practice how to drain the mask and retrieve the underwater breathing apparatus after it fell off. After the explanation, everyone had to fill out some forms, mainly to confirm their physical condition and a small test after participating in diving training, which was the last step for your diving.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
Finally, Yunluo, An Qingju and the female compatriots from Shanghai were divided into the fourth diving group, and the young man was the team coach of Yunluo and An Qingju.
It has been about an hour and a half since I boarded the boat. The sea is calm and the sun is shining brightly. The boat has been moving very smoothly, with only a few ups and downs. How could I get seasick in such good weather? A small island appeared on the sea in the distance, with birds circling above it.
The Great Barrier Reef, listed as a World Natural Heritage Site in 1981, is the world's largest and longest coral reef. It runs along the northeast coast of Australia, from the Torres Strait in the north to the south of the Tropic of Capricorn in the south, stretching a total of 2,011 kilometers and 161 kilometers at its widest point.
There are 2,900 coral reef islands of various sizes, and the natural landscape is very unique. The southern end of the Great Barrier Reef is 241 kilometers away from the coast, while the northern end is closer, with the closest point only 16 kilometers away from the coast. At low tide, some coral reefs emerge from the water to form coral islands. There is an extremely convenient sea route between the reefs and the coast.
When the weather is calm, when cruise ships pass through here, the endless colorful and diverse coral scenery under the ship becomes the best underwater wonder that attracts tourists from all over the world to come and watch.
The scenery here is charming, steep and unpredictable, the water flow is extremely complex, and there are more than 400 different types of coral reefs, including the largest coral reef in the world, 1,500 species of fish, more than 4,000 species of mollusks, and 242 species of birds, providing unique conditions for scientific research.
It is also home to some endangered animal species such as the dugong and the giant green turtle.
Arriving at the small island, we found that there were flocks of seabirds, their calls were endless, almost covering half of the island. It is said that this is a famous wild seabird sanctuary, but Yunluo and An Qingju came here for snorkeling, so they had no intention of lingering. They took a buoy (called noodle in slang) and jumped into the sea, starting Yunluo and An Qingju's Great Barrier Reef snorkeling trip.
To be honest, An Qingju only "learned" to swim last year. He could only swim 20 meters at a time, then stand up from the water to take a breath and continue swimming. His swimming ability was really average. Although he had splashed in the sea before, this was definitely An Qingju's first time snorkeling. He was given a warning not long after he entered the sea.
An Qingjue, who had not yet adapted to the shallow breathing method, choked on water and quickly stood in the sea to adjust. At this time, ld was still moving forward, and there was no one behind him. After arranging the breathing mask, he had to bite the bullet and continue moving forward. Slowly mastering the shallow breathing method, a few fish occasionally flashed in front of him. As he continued to go deeper.
Various colorful schools of fish began to appear, some were only the size of a thumb, but were numerous; some were brightly colored, yellow, blue, and red, and were particularly eye-catching under the sunlight. The corals also gradually took on different colors and shapes, in addition to red and white, there was a blue one that was very impressive.
Occasionally, we can encounter some larger fish, which look familiar but we can't name them. It's a pity that Yunluo and An Qingju didn't rent an underwater camera, so today we can only watch An Qingju fool around! (To be continued...)
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