Paluma & Girringun National Parks

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Before leaving Townsville, we had a couple of things to take care of. After putting the rest of our things in the van and having brekkie with Jason, we visited our agency to say goodbye and drove over to Kirwan to walk Toro for a last time. After a bit of a growling display, he took to Dean like a duck to water and all three of us enjoyed our stroll through the fields. I think Toro sensed that I wouldn’t be back – he sulked more than usual when we left – and I’m really going to miss that little fellow.



We travelled northbound, stopping at the famous Frosty Mango for a snack. They make icecream from every imaginable tropical fruit and Dean had some jackfruit icecream while I chose a slice of almond & orange cake and a fresh starfruit (I remember those from Jamaica!).



Once we arrived at our destination, the Paluma National Park, we settled back into our camping groove in amongst beautiful nature. After all the luxury we had enjoyed recently, going back to a drop toilet and freezing cold shower was a bit of a shock to the system, but we both enjoyed waking up to the sunshine and the birds tweeting.



Free from work commitments, I decided it was time to hit the books. So, armed with my almond & orange cake and some Green & Blacks chocolate (I think studying is going to make me fat!), I set myself up on one of the picnic benches. It felt good to finally start my studies properly but I was reminded of the challenges I faced whilst studying psychology at uni: I read stuff without it actually sticking in my head; I’m slower than I’d like to be; and I spend too much time planning and not enough time doing! I’m sure that in time I’ll settle into a routine, but for now it’s still pretty daunting. In order to complete the course in three years (I turn 37 next month and would love to graduate by my 40^th birthday), I will need to study around 20 hours a week. This doesn’t sound so hard, but finding three hours a day EVERY DAY is proving surprisingly tricky. I had thought that studying whilst travelling would be easier than studying whilst working, but I can now see the benefits of having a life with a routine and a house with a designated study area. Dean reckons I should have ‘kick-ass study days’, ie choose a number of days when I do nothing but study, to bang out those 20 hours. I guess I’ll play around with it and see what works best in the long run.



On the following morning we did the walk up to the Jourama Falls lookout. It’s a beautiful area with a really nicely set up boardwalk through the forest. The falls themselves are cascaded and it wasn’t hard to imagine how ferocious they’d be after some heavy rainfall.



Our next destination was the nearby Girringun National Park, however, on our way up the mountain we noticed a very strange noise coming from the side of our van. We figured out that it was our brakes and, to be on the safe side, we turned around and drove back to Ingham to track down some new brake pads. Once again, I was reminded of how lucky and blessed I am that Dean is so mechanically minded. Within an hour, he had bought and fitted new brake pads to the front wheels of the van! It transpired that the noise we had heard had been metal on metal… our brake pads had almost worn out completely which explains why they hadn’t been working so well for the last little while! We decided to upgrade our second car battery at the same time as our old one hadn’t been doing so well in the power-storing department.



Girringun National Park take two! That afternoon was such a beautiful one and, as we had lots of camping space to ourselves, I decided to get out my yoga mat and try some ‘home practice’. As it turns out, picnic tables are the ideal place for that! Later that evening, much to our dismay, it started raining. We had had no rain for seven weeks whilst living in a house, and after only two days on the road it started again!! Thankfully it wasn’t heavy though and we simply retreated into the van for another awesome episode of True Blood :-)



The following morning, we prepared for the epic hike down to the base of the Wallaman Falls. That waterfall is breathtaking! It’s such a cool view that Dean actually made me wear a blindfold and led me to the lookout at the top of the falls. At 268 metres (and a pool depth of 20 metres below), Wallaman Falls is the highest single-drop waterfall in the southern hemisphere! So you can imagine what the hike to the bottom was like. It was so steep that it took almost the same amount of time to descend the track as it did to climb back up it. We made it back to the top, huffing and puffing, having drunk every drop of our water and sweating like there was no tomorrow. Three days later, my calves are still in agony. It was a great experience though and one not to be missed!

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