cawhite

Hi everyone,

Still fine tuning our itinerary for our 3 week, 1st time Fiji/Australia trip in June/July 2009.

As you may recall, after we disembark the Spirit of Freedom liveaboard, toward the end of our time in Far North Queensland, we will be heading to Yungaburra for the night. On the way there we plan to visit the Tichum Creek Coffee Farm, Mareeba to see the Eastern Grey Kangaroos on the golf course, Granite Gorge to feed the Rock Wallabies, Curtain Fig, and Petersen Creek looking for platypus. Later that evening we will do a nocturnal tour with Alan Gillanders, and we'll spend the following day touring the area with Alan.

We still haven't decided if we want to stay an extra night in Yungaburra... we thought we might do the Kuranda RR / skyrail trip the following morning, and then head back to Sydney.

But now we've found a new activity that looks interesting that we might choose to do instead of Kuranda... the Mamu Rainforest Canopy Walk between Innisfail and Millaa Millaa.

Now for the questions....

1) If we stay in Yungaburra a 2nd night, and do the Mamu Walk the following morning, what time would be the earliest we should book our CNS to SYD flight?

2) Would the Mamu Rainforest Canopy Walk be a preferable activity over the Kuranda RR / Skyrail?

3) Would we see similar scenery to what we'll see in the area with Alan, or what we will have already seen in the Daintree Rainforest, or will the Mamu Walk provide all new and different scenery?

Thanks, again, for your help!

Carole

Bushranger

http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/parks_and_...anopy_walkway/

Looks interesting Carole and in only being opened this year I haven't been but I've never been a great fan of the SkyRail for the ride is largely across the top of the canopy and to me the limited viewing had a certain sameness to it with some variation at the midway station, and highlight being the reef image vistas on the last section on a good day.

I far enjoyed doing boardwalk trapsing[unguided] in various areas and then climbing Mt. Sorrow but with rainforest wildlife like most being nocturnal, there was limited to see other than a couple of snakes and hopefully your walks with Alan would reveal more.

The railway trip up tp Kuranda has some spectacular gorge vistas, better if a good water flow but if I was going to be at Yungunburra, the canopy walk would also entice me for you'll be walking at canopy level rather than above it or below giving yourself a good neck crink trying to look up.

You'll have to drive south a bit from Yungunburra through Malanda and Millaa Millaa and then down towards Innisfail[~45min.], and it'll be a longer drive back to Cairns, nearly two hours to airport via Innisfail and by sounds of it, a good hour to hour and a half for the walkway circuit and lookouts. Seeing as the most direct route back up the highway, it'd be a shame not to stop at Babinda and get some sandwiches or whatever and head into the Babinda Rocks for a picnic lunch.

You may have to forego that depending on what time in morning you get going and afternnon flight times available.

So all up I'd say give yourself 4.5 hours without the lunch break or 6.0 hours with it at BR and 1.5 hrs for check in.

pat_woolford

Hi, went on Mamu rainforst canopy walk a couple of months ago, well worth it. Happened to be staying with friend who lives at Yungaburra, so went down the scenic Palmerston Hwy (don't get stuck behind a cattle truck if you can help it, we did with interesting results all over windshield!).

Not really comparable with Skyrail/Kuranda Train although far less touristed; Skyrail goes over rainforest canopy with two stops on boardwalks in rainforests.

Were you thinking of leaving your car in Kuranda? If so, you've got a bit of a logistical problem if wanting to do both Skyrail and Scenic Train from there, the first Skyrail leaves Kuranda at 8.30am and first train at 2.00pm, allowing 90 mins for Skyrail would mean you've missed the last train in morning from either Cairns or Freshwater stations (leaving 9.30am and 9.45am respectively, and you should be there at least 15 mins before boarding time).

So you could either drive to Freshwater railway station (this would mean early start from Yungaburra) for 8.45am train, leave your car at Freshwater, you'd be in Kuranda by 10.10 am, spend a bit of time in Kuranda and take Skyrail back to its station near Smithfield, north of Cairns, if you book this with Skyrail - www.skyrail.com.au they'll provide a transfer back to your car at Freshwater, then approx 15 mins drive to Cairns airport. Other alternative, would be to skip the train, do a return Skyrail from Kuranda, then about a 40 min. drive from Kuranda to airport.

cawhite

Thanks, Bushranger and Pat... it looks like both options (Mamu and Kuranda) will take about the same amount of time and both will leave us with the option of the last flight out to Sydney (right now we've been looking primarily at Virgin Blue). We were hoping to catch an earlier flight. We'll have to think about this a little more....

So even though they are very different activities, if we could only do one of the two, which would you recommend?

Carole

cawhite

Oh, and Pat... we would do the "self drive" option if we go to Kuranda, where you leave your car at the Freshwater station and get one-way transportation back.