2020-03-19 – Tjapukai Aboriginal Center and Kuranda

We are headed out north of town for a full day of sightseeing.  Before we had even left town we saw another Big art piece, this one a statue of Captain James Cook.

The area is full of sugar cane fields and pretty mountains, part of the Great Dividing Range that runs the length (north/south) of Australia.

Our first stop was at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Center.  The grounds are pretty with a nice size lake…

with a contingent of turtles that obviously get fed.  They were hanging out under the bridge practically begging.

The center was staffed by young aboriginal people who talked about many various aspects of their culture. 

The first demonstration was how to throw a boomerang.  We found out that it isn’t easy to throw and get it to return.  We also learned that there are left handed and right handed boomerangs.  Who knew.

Then it was off to the spear throwing demonstration.  The spears are very long pointed sticks with a small indentation in the non-pointed end.  They use a throwing stick that has a small “barb” at one end and a flat “paddle” at the other.  The barb fits into the indentation and the spear and the paddle portion of the throwing stick are held in one hand.  The spear is then thrown while flicking the throwing stick.  This has the effect of making your throwing arm much longer and giving much more power to the throw.  Pretty effective if you can do it.  None of us tourists even came close to hitting the target. 

We also got a lecture on how they make a didgeridoo and were treated to a song.  The song included a kookaburra laugh, a dingo howl and a kangaroo jumping.  Can you hear them?  It was amazing what he could do on the instrument with just his lips.  And they do circle breathing…inhaling and blowing to play at the same time.  This allows them to play very very long songs without ever stopping for a breath.  Amazing. 

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Video of didgeridoo.
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They gave a small show featuring the didgeridoo and aboriginal percussion instruments.

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video of show
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We saw a demonstration about different types of weapons 

and got to try our hand making a fire using the fire stick. 

We also learned a bit about foods and medicines…

and then we had lunch.  We were the only people in the restaurant having lunch but they had a lovely table reserved for us and a buffet.

We then walked over to the Skyrail for a ride through the rain forest. 

The ride took us over a river.

There were two stops where we took a small walk along the boardwalks into the rain forest (got a little wet but not too bad).

There were good views…

lawyer cane with massive amounts of spines along the stalks

and basket ferns, perched high in the trees.

One of the walks took us to an overlook of Barron Gorge

and Barron Falls.  Gorgeous area and pretty falls.

While the falls had a petty nice steam of water, a photo on display showed that during wet periods the falls are massive.  Too bad we missed that.

One of the walks also had lots of giant rainforest leaves impressions in pavement.  Interesting.

The Skyrail ended in the at the town of Kuranda.  

It had a number of small restaurants and ice creams shops, lots of souvenir shops and 

a pretty little church (St. Saviour).

Our return trip was by the Kuranda Scenic Rail train.  

The route was originally built through the gorge as transportation for the timber and gold operations.  It now is a great scenic trip.  

We had a stop at an overlook to see Barron Falls…

and a slow transit past the Stoney Falls and 

and over Stoney Bridge.

We had a fair amount of rain on the train trip but we are in a rain forest so what can one expect.  We were back into town well in time for dinner.