THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY

After lunch at Almaden and watching the Great Wheelbarrow Race we climbed aboard the Savannahlander Train for the last time. We thought Cairns, our final destination would be our next stop but we were in for a few more surprises.

 After an hour or so the driver stops the train and announces that we are being held up by train robbers.

Then two little robbers walked through the carriages holding a cash bag. How could we refuse to pay up. Apparently, every Saturday when the train comes back, the drivers stop at a farm where the children board the train to take up a collection. They are saving up for a holiday by the sea. Each week they are dressed differently.

 Then we had to dash to get to Kuranda Station before 4:30 as it closes down and the signalman will not be there to let us go through to Cairns so we rattled along at speed and arrived in time.

Everyone gets out to stretch their legs while the station master looks on. The gardens on the station are beautiful, as I showed you before on the way up.

 The railway line snakes its way through rainforest and down the steep Kuranda Range to the coast. It crosses tressle bridges and passes through many tunnels. It was built by hand in the late 1800's but has been maintained and renovated since then. This is the famous Stoney Creek crossing. It often appears in travel brochures. Our drivers gave us a treat by stopping the train and letting us walk across the bridge so we could take some brochure type photos of the train passing by the waterfall.

Stoney Creek Falls from the bridge.

The train slowly comes towards us. It is quite a breathtaking sight.

Then we all piled back on for the down hill run into Cairns. This was an amazing, fun filled trip and if you are ever in the Cairns area I highly recommend 'The Savannahlander 4 day trip". There is a 6 day trip where you join another train called 'The Gulflander" and go even further west.