Cairnes (Pronounced Cans) AU

I knew Aussies didn't know how to pronounce consonants at the end of their words but, they took out half the letters in Cairnes.  The i, r, e and half of the s is missing from their pronounciation. My expectations were not high for this Australian port, after seeing Sydney and Brisbane; however, it turned out to  be one of the better excursions so far. 

There are four parts to this story: 1. mountain and tropical forrest train ride. 2. holding a kuala bear.  3. riding a duck and  4. Aussies buying beer so I almost missed the ship.

KURANDA SCENIC RAILWAY

This narrow gauge railroad (3 ft. 6 in.) built in 1891 is first class in both right-of-way and equipment, going from sea level to 337 metres. It started in Caires but wound it's way up the mountains through 15 tunnels, numerous bridges and by several large waterfalls.  It was well worth the trip.

Locomotive hand-painted by the Djabugay of the Buda-Dji, the Carpet Snake.

These replayed steam. Only 1000 hp each.

Tunnel #8

Rain on a different mountain.

To give you an idea of scale, those are trees on the other side of the canyon, not bushes.

ZOO

At Kuranda Station there was a zoo of Australian animals.  You could walk among the kangaroos and see the more hostile animals, such as snakes and crocodiles in enclosures. I loved the warning sign and even got to hold a koala bear.  They are union bears as they are only to work for 30 minutes a day taking photos with tourists.

Tazmanian Devil

DUCK BOAT

The next part of the day's excursion was to drop down into the rainforest to ride the duck boat through the jungle.  These were made in Detroit in 1942-3 to land Allied troops on shore during amphibious invasions. They too originaly acted as light armour and machine gun support for infantry.

The tour included very interesting talk about many of the rain forest trees and plants, especially the ones that can seriously cut or kill us with poison in just touching them. Most are protected by the government. The driver was reminiesent of my dad when he was a U.S. Forest Service ranger at Blanchard Springs Caverns. He loved talking about nature and the caves.  This guy enjoyed his job too but sadly, he wouldn't let me drive the boat.

ALMOST MISSED THE SHIP

We got back to the ship about 4:00 pm. I showered and headed to a shopping mall about 8 blocks away in the central business district. When I use Facebook messenger to call home, people on the other end were getting feedback so I shopped for some bluetooth headphones that would elimanate that. I found them and then witnessed two teenagers commit a snatch-and-run shoplifting in a skateboard/beach clothing store. It sent clerks and guards running all over the place.

On the way to the mall

In the mall. I think it's a cross between Burger King and Jack-in-the-Box.

I stopped for this selfie and watched the theft in progress.

As I was indentifying the culprets to the police a local guy overheard me. He said,"You're an American." and "You're from the South. I'm from Philadelphia and you are the first American I've seen in weeks." Long story short, Spence and I went into an Irish pub he knew and had a few beers.  I love Australian beer. So good.

People kept buying me beers. There was a live group with a fiddle and guitar playing Irish songs with the whole bar full of people singing with them. They all appeared as though they might have had a drink or two or three. My ship leaves at 7:30, I thought.

At 6:00 pm I heard a loud ship's horn that reverbirated through the buildings. I was sure hoping it was the Europa departing and not my ship, the Insignia. Too late to worry about that, so I had another beer.  That made 6, maybe seven beers.  I'm not sure. So good.

It's a good 15-20 minute walk the the ship but, I'm still recovering a little from my knee injury from jumping out of a perfectly good airplane in Clinton. As I was leaving, a couple of Queensland cops on bicycles rolled up. So naturally I had to start up a conversation.  I kept looking at my watch and told the officers I had to catch a ship out-of-town. Could they point me in the right direction?

I was walking as fast as I could.  It was fortunate that I was somewhat intoxicated (drunk) so that I felt no pain at all in my legs. When I finally made it to the pier, the crew was at the ready to take in the gangway and were waiting on me. "Are you Mr. Beach?"  It was 7:29.  I made it by one minute.

I found out today at dinner that the cruise line had me paged at the airport in Sydney. Marcia had flown in and heard the public address and thought that there couldn't be two Jim Beach. My friends on board heard them paging on the ship at 7:15. Oceania was worried because earlier in the cruise I'd left the ship at Sydney and got back on at Brisbane,  Even though I had prior permission from the company and Australian visa approval, apparently the staff on the ship didn't know.  This time, after I was the only one that hadn't checked in, they thought I was making another side trip.

So good.