Its Hot at the Top

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DAY 318


After a late night watching the movie Chuck and Larry, which was hysterical we didn’t get up that early this morning, me (Andy) I managed to get my backside out of bed an hour before Caroline and got things together for another yomp today (ok Caroline did get out of bed and make the sandwiches!)

As we had done a fantastic walk up to the Glacier Rock a couple of weeks ago, I thought It would be a good idea if we did it again. Last time though we did a 2k walk before setting off on this particular climb, which we won’t call a mountain but it is more than a hill, and we conquered it quite well, though a tough walk, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

So with the CamelBak sorted and everything we set of for the area of Kamerunga where we parked the truck and put our boots on.

The weather has started to warm up as we are getting towards summer and the weatherman had said that it was going to be a warm one today and he wasn’t wrong.

My wristwatch said 10.59, we locked the truck and strode off, heading up toward the steep climb that I know we had in front of us. We catch up with a young girl on the walk up, she seemed to be dawdling and not particularly excited by the prospect of walking, she let us pass and soon we caught up with her mother. She asked if we had seen her daughter, we told her we had. This woman explained how much she likes walking around this National Park and quite often walks on her own, however it is the school holidays now and she is trying to encourage her daughter and get her fitter and more able to cope with these walks, with the hope that when her daughter is older she will have someone to keep her company on these walks.

Fortunately the rain forest canopy provided us with really good shade for the first section of the walk until we “popped” out of the cover at the beginning of the Steel bridge over the railway line. We had seen a train earlier which we knew was the Cairns Kuranda Scenic railway and stood on the bridge for a while in the hope that we may see another train go under us, but no such luck.

We cross the bridge, then ascend 5 flights of steel steps provided by Queensland Railway, and end up at the “Switchback” we have absolutely no shade but have our hats and plenty of water so we just need not to stay out in the sun for to long. Everytime we do a side of the switchback, we try and find a small amount of shade under a small tree just so we can catch our breath.

The climb ends at the massive electricity Pylon, and we only have a couple of hundred meters to walk where we know is some dense shade and we can “break out” our lunch.

We made the lunch point at 12.35 so an hour and thirty-five, which wasn’t too bad, it is quite a climb, but the view from the top is absolutely stunning.

At the top was an Ergon Energy contractor with a 4x4pick up and a back hoe, I said “hi” to the chap and asked him what they were up to, he said that they were keeping on top of the maintenance of the track for the electricity company, which I though was strange doing it at this time of year just a couple of months before the wet season, but hey who am I to question it?

We watch them clearing the drainage channels and pulling back loose debris whilst eating our sandwich, still sheltering from the hot sun but on the stroke of 1.00pm we started back with a bit of a step trying to make the rain forest shade in 15 minutes so we were soon down the bottom of the switchback and the top of the steel steps.

Soon we were on the other side of the bridge we made the steep track down in just an hour, being careful to mind our step, as we find it harder going down hill than up. However no matter how careful we are there is always going to be something to catch you out, during our descent I suddenly see Caroline slip down a slope and end up sitting on her backside, I thought to myself “this is not the time to sit down and have a rest!” The leaf cover on the ground is quite heavy and can be quite slippery, especially when covering a tree root.

Fortunately this time there is no damage so I helped Caroline back to her feet and on we went we got back to the truck at 2.00pm, which we were quite happy with we were also desperate to get our boots and socks off and back on with the thongs.

We feel whacked from the walk and set off back to Bayview, where a sit down and a cup of tea is the order of the day. So after showers the kettle goes on and we just sit and read for a couple of hours, and soon its teatime.

When we were at Undarra (the lava tubes) their chef did a dish just of chicken coated in Oats which was gorgeous so I when we went shopping yesterday I bought a bag of oats and some chicken to try the dish, I had limited success but certainly heading in the right direction and made me think how I could improve it next time.

The rest of the evening was just kicking back and watching the TV, and yet another film before bed, which was The Andromeda Strain, a remake of the old 1971 Classic.

So that’s it for another day bloggers.

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Photos

To the Top
This is where we are walking today.

Caroline
On the way down

Comments

[Mum and Dad]

"Phew"
Hi.....Stunning photos of the views......and Caroline hot but not bothered.....Today we visited The Vyne National Trust Property near Basingstoke. The lake had many ducks etc, but numerous Canada Geese had found a great place to stay for their summer holiday......the gardener told us that if we fancied goose for dinner we could take one home with us! We enjoyed our day out...the house was very interesting with lovely walks along the river. Have fun. Mum and Dad x