Nov 18 - Cairns

 Nov 18 - Cairns

It’s Monday and we’ve arrived in Cairns!

A few hiccups and we were off on our planned excursion that another mate from Cruise Critic had organized on the Kuranda Railway and Sky Walk.

*** Here is the back story!!!  If you want to skip all this minutiae, just scroll down!!!  

First of all there had been great confusion about where we would be docked; that was important because we had to get to a nearby hotel to be picked up for the tour at a specified time. The docking location would determine whether I might walk to the hotel, or if we would need a cab.  Second, the captain had announced that we would be arriving later than expected!  Eek!

Our meeting time was 10:45.  We arrived into Cairns at 9:30.  Looking over our balcony I could see it was quite a walk to the exit, and an ambulance was pulling up to the ship! Oh boy!!   We had emailed John, the organizer, last night that we would meet up at the hotel, rather than on the ship so Mary and I went down to Deck 5 to wait until the ship had been cleared and disembarkation could start.  OMG!  Hundreds of people had the same idea!

I found a spot close to some other people with walkers/ wheelchair to wait, rather than joining the huge line that snaked all the way around the atrium!!   When the crush of people started to move we inched our way forward with the other handicapped passengers and when we got to the elevator lobby, a crew member pointed to the elevator for us to get in! (I always feel badly when I bypass dozens of people who have been waiting in line, but when I realize how long it would have taken to get through the other line, I get over it!!)

Now we start the trek to the terminal where we need to exit,  and when we arrive there are dozens of people waiting for a taxi, many with luggage as they are disembarking - and no taxis!!  We milled around for a bit and then I heard a man saying he was going to the Skywalk, so my ears perked up and I asked if he’d like to share a cab!!  By this time it was 10:25 and my mind had jumped to Plan B ( or is it C or D?) and I figured we had to take the cab right to the Skywalk terminal, so sharing would cut down our costs.  He didn’t know how to call a cab there, but I just happened to have the phone number and email for Cairns Taxi!!!  So a quick call, and a couple of minutes later along came a cab!!

It was a van type cab and a few other people decided to join as well!  We started out for Skywalk, and about a block out of the terminal I realized we were going to pass the hotel meeting place so after a quick glance at my watch, realizing we could still make the pick up time I asked the driver if we could get out there!!!  As we ‘hopped’ ( a figure of speech!!!!)  out and the guy who had called the cab helped me get the walker out of the car, one of the other couples we were to meet was standing right there!

John and his wife had stayed at the ship in case we were still there, so Mike called John on his cell phone and told him we were at the meeting place, and within minutes we were all together!!!  PHEW!  Poor Mary!  She had resigned herself to the fact that we weren’t going to make the tour a few steps back in this process!!  But here we were ready for a lovely day!!

Skywalk was first - Gondolas that would take us up to Kuranda!  Because I had the walker they put the two of us and my wheels into one car so we didn’t have to share.  The view was spectacular!  We felt like birds flying over the tops of the trees!  

The gondola ride was in two stages - the first took us to Barron Falls where we changed gondolas for the second stage to the top.

We had a couple of hours before we needed to get to the train for the trip down, so we wandered a bit, had some ice cream, and relaxed in the shade on this beautiful sunny day!

We had reserved seats in the Gold Class car on the train (lah-Dee- dah!)!  This gave us comfortable upholstered seats, and refreshments!  First we had wine with a little package of Macadamia Nuts.  Then more wine, and individual little trays of nibblies! And for ‘dessert’, a Dixie cup with Mango Sorbet!  It was very civilized I must say!  Liquid refills were always available! LOL

A stop at Barron Falls on the way down and great scenery rounded out this lovely day!

 

Our next challenge was hoping they still had my walker ( someone took it away to store before we left Kuranda!), and then figuring out how to get back to the ship by cab!  The others were going to walk back, so we got directions to the cab stand and soon we were on our way.

It was great to get back to our cabin where it was cool!  These hot humid days are very tiring.  Mary went in search of something to eat and I opted to stay put and have a granola bar for dinner!

Lights out early after a lovely, scenic, eventful day!  We have been blessed with wonderful weather (albeit ‘hot’) in every port!   Now just Brisbane remains on our itinerary!

Sea day tomorrow as we pass by Willis Island.

😴😴