En route to Darwin, Australia. Arrive on 12-Feb.

During our last day in Cairns, we visited Kuranda, up in the near mountains. However, we traveled to and from via different methods.

What is now called the Kuranda Scenic Railway was built after inland miners were cut off from the coast and on the verge of starvation. Today it is a scenic way for tourists to visit the town. And the view was nice for different reasons.

First was looking out to the coast before we got too far into the hills.

I noticed that there is no asphalt shingle roofing on the houses, and I wondered about that aloud on the train. Someone suggested it was driven by the need for most homeowners to collect rainwater for personal use. I’m not sure about that, and research afterwards shows that asphalt shingles are a technology that just has not caught on in Australia. There is a lot of metal and tile roofs.

Then we turned the corner and saw the Barron Falls. Locals say they have not seen the falls so full in years.

Kuranda is a lovely town, but very oriented to the tourist trade. We had an hour before our lunch reservation, so while my fellow travelers went shopping, I visited the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary. They have a large, walk-thru “rainforest” aviary with about a zillion Australian butterflies gliding about.

The tour guide explained how they kept so many butterflies and moths fed (they see flowers by color, thus feeding stations have color), and how they harvested the eggs to ensure safe caterpillar growth.

The Hercules Moth in their lab was over 1 foot across. But it seems they can’t stay in the lab for long – the moth does not have a mouth or digestive system. They have three days after leaving the cocoon to find a mate before they run out of batteries. No pressure.

Throughout the facility there were posted questions and answers, all with a bit of humor.

After lunch (and buying a cool metal mobile for my back yard – I hope I don’t bend it during the next three months) we returned to town via the Skyrail, enclosed gondolas with six seats, which offered stunning views. There were two transfer stations on the way down, each of which offered education stations on the rainforest. And it was bucketing rain, so none of my pictures were worth anything (I need to learn how to take such images). But the rain broke as we cabled our way down.

Skyrail took a picture at the bottom as our gondola entered the base station (green-screen background of the rainforest). From left to right are Colette, Carole, Herve, Ron and me. After hitting a grocery store to buy some iced tea I returned to the ship.

So, my thoughts on such field trips – it’s a great break. I enjoy the “mobile 5-star hotel” of the cruise ship, but you don’t really get much from day-long visit to ports. It’s like a “sample pack” of possible future vacation destinations. Three days in Cairns allowed us to dive a little deeper into the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest.

However, it is not cheap – I am still paying for my cabin and meals in the ship during the field trip in addition to the air travel, hotel and tours. The four off-ship multi-day trips I’ve signed up for add about 15% to the total cost of this world cruise. So, it’s not a killer, but not tiny either. Pick and choose with care.