Day 184 - Friday 30 June - Things to do on a rainy day in Cairns

Day 184

Friday

30 June 2017 – Started my next book - Twelve Red Herrings by Jeffery Archer. This should be an easy read as it is a collection of short stories.

Cairns

We woke to a grey morning but could see the blue sky attempting to make a mark on the day. I was happy to stay in bed and read my book until Paul crawled out just after 8 and we began with breakfast before thinking about the day ahead.

We walked to the top of the Glacier Rock that you can see here.

We packed the car with our gear and drove to Stoney Creek, part of the Barron Gorge and national park. We began with a relatively easy 1km walk along Stoney Creek and the many waterholes all the way to the weir where water cascaded from between boulders.

We thought this rock looked like a face.

 

We returned along the path before noticing the Douglas Track sign and opting to follow that one too, a silly move. We began the ascent through the rainforest, along the rocky, heavily tree rooted and sometimes muddy track. We walked about 20min before stopping a young fitness fanatic on his way down to ask how far the track went and if it was actually worth it. He assured us the views of Cairns were great, showed us a photo on his phone and said we had about 40min ahead of us.

The Kuranda Railway train line

 

We probably should have turned around then, as we only had one museli bar and no water, but of course we didn’t. We continued to trudge on, which was fine at first as the legs were fresh but that soon wore off. Paul was a dripping mess, with his grey tshirt ringing wet and now almost black in colour.

We eventually crossed the Kuranda Railway line, a sign stating the times the train passed by, not for another couple of hours. We then looked up and saw the stairs, if our legs weren’t working hard enough already, we now had Jacobs ladder to contend with! Quad burn was rife once we were at the top.

Seriously, stairs!

 

We pressed on, thinking we must be almost there as the vegetation thinned right out and we could see the sky, we even had a good view back to Lake Placid and over our caravan park.

Our caravan park

Are we there yet?

 

We stopped some more walkers when we had reached what we thought was the end of the track, only to be told we should keep walking for 20min to Glacier Rock for the great views. Are you kidding me? But coming this far it seemed senseless to turn back, so we entered the rainforest again and continued to climb, climb, climb before we finally reached the crescendo and the view of a clouded in Cairns.

And the path continues UP, through the mud and rainforest.

View from Glacier Rock.

 

I was glad to be at the top knowing the walking from now on was leading us back to the car. We began our descent at 12, as you would expecting t is quicker going down, though I find it more difficult on the knees and maintaining my balance slipping a few times, but luckily managing to stay upright.

At 1pm we finally had sight of the car which we raided for bananas and water before making our way back to the park absolutely spent, our daily step count completed before eating lunch.

We didn’t do much for next couple of hours, it was hard enough just sitting there. We did however manage to find the strength in us again and we took off for Cairns city, parking by the esplanade and enjoying a hot chocolate at one of the lagoon side cafes. When we had finished we did a brief walk around the lagoon area and watching the water birds amongst the mud flats before making our way back to the car and on to Barrier Reef Brewing Co.

 

Cam, the owner and brewer, met us in the small tasting room, happy to entertain us and keep Paul lubricated with their selection of beers. Plenty of customers came in to try the range and we chatted to many of them as well. It was a pleasant way to spend the Friday arvo.

 

We left Cam to it and made our way to a farmers market, a bit like Spud Shed. We grabbed some vege before returning to the van for the evening. We were very lazy one we returned. I watched an episode of Pretty Little Liars while working on the photos and then dinner before we eventually crawled in to bed ready to put our big morning to bed.