Matey's musings

Captain is fond of saying that here we are experiencing 'wet rain'. Once it finally arrived it has been wet indeed. Fabulous as the rain is, it's also good to have a regular break from it to de-mould the boat. No amount of mould could be too high a price, though, for the rain that makes our beloved rainforests and waterfalls, and yesterday, leeches and wild boar notwithstanding, we discovered our best walk yet in Wooroonooran National Park.

With a few days of northerly winds last week we decided to venture south for a change of scenery. Stops on the way included Kings Beach, Normandy Island, and Mutchero Inlet, where the Russell and Mulgrave rivers converge before flowing into the Coral Sea. Then to Innisfail, where the North and South Johnstone rivers converge. Approximately thirty km west of Innisfail is the Wooroonooran National Park, where the run-off from the hills, including Henrietta Creek, flow into the North Johnstone River. We managed a dip in the Johnstone River, after following a mildly treacherous wet track down from Crawfords lookout. We also did rainforest walks to the gorgeous Tchupala Falls and Wallicher Falls, off the Palmerston Highway. But the best was yesterday, when we did the Nandroya Falls circuit walk. This winds around the valleys and almost every corner has a waterfall, some more dramatic than others, but each beautiful. Admittedly it was wet underfoot, and therefore some sections of the track were slippery, but we saw no-one else.

Captain helpfully points out North Johnston River from Crawfords lookout

First section of Tchupala Falls

The path further down was 'closed' and overgrown. So much effort went into building this, it's a shame not to maintain it (but needless to say it would cost a lot. The quality of the extensive walking tracks is often astoundingly good.)

Fairy path

Wallicher Falls

Fabulous buttress roots with gnome

Silver Creek Falls

Nandroya Falls

Native banana

North Johnstone River

Cluster figs

There is an amazing number of gorges, waterfalls and swimming holes near Cairns. There is much to explore and be awed by. We’ve been to Crystal Cascades, Mossman Gorge, Babinda Boulders, Behana Gorge, Barron Gorge and Barron Falls, Davies Creek, Kearney Falls, and Crater Lakes National Park. These helped to convince us to make Cairns our base for the cyclone season.

Plastic paradise

We’ve also explored remote beaches near Cairns and Fitzroy Island. We’ve again been disappointed to see once-beautiful beaches littered with plastic detritus washed and blown in by the prevailing south-easterly winds and swell. Bottles, coloured lids, containers, crates, buoys, thongs, shoe parts, bags, toothbrushes, fishing line, rope, nets, you-name-it-we-found-it. Sadly, this stuff doesn’t break down, it just disintegrates into smaller particles, but something still thinks it’s a good dinner option. If enough is consumed the animal dies an unpleasant death. If not, the toxins in the plastic enter the food chain. Our food chain. We should care out of self-interest if nothing else.

Job satisfaction

There’s only one thing to do. We have purpose-built bags. We have time. It takes about an hour to clean a small beach. Instead of feeling disappointed by our species and helpless in the face of multiple impending environmental catastrophes, doing something about it eases this pain slightly. Picking up and removing every piece of plastic we can find feels good. It’s a small thing compared with the calamity we have dumped on nature, and considering the country-sized floating plastic zones in the ocean it’s insignificant, but it’s cathartic.

Strange tidings

Matey was interested to notice the tide at Cairns in the last months of 2013 (as the solstice approached). Until Cairns we’d encountered only semi-diurnal tides (two highs and two lows each day). But in Cairns, for a few days after the full moon the tide became diurnal (just one high and one low each day). This makes the water in Trinity Inlet unusually calm, as not only is the difference between high and low small, as it takes twice as long to occur the water flow is very slight. This was a welcome change from the usual strong flow, which when combined with opposing wind makes the trip ashore unpleasant at times. With even the slightest wind it’s a large enough body of water to create quite a bit of chop, so the slow flow made getting ashore a much more pleasant experience.

Waitimg

Currently, we are tied up in a mangrove creek, with sandflies and the odd mosquito for friends, waiting to feel the effects of the likely cyclone tomorrow, assuming the tropical low in the Coral Sea develops into one. At this stage the forecast is for at worst a category 2 cyclone, so it should be an interesting experience without us being thrown in at the deep end. Still, it will coincide with king tides, which could add an extra layer of excitement. Maybe too much. To be revealed. The inland regions will no doubt be glad of the rain it brings.

Post Script: Cyclone Dylan hit the coast far to the south of us. Conditions were so calm in the mangroves on Admiralty Island the only damage occurred in final sandfly raid. The damage was not insubstantial.