Happy Birthday Michael!!!

This morning I was up early so that I could drive 7km west of Babinda town in to the Wooroonooran National Park so that I could start the 12km walk at Babinda Boulders at around 8am in order to avoid most of the people.

The Babinda Boulders are a stretch of massive granite boulders that have been sculpted by the fast-running creek. At the lower end is a grassy picnic area with gentle clear-water swimming hole, while walking trails lead upstream to Devil's Pool lookout (470m away) and the Boulders Gorge lookout (600m away). Swimming is prohibited in the dangerous fast-flowing upper reaches.

I started off at the main picnic area and headed in to the rainforest jungle to begin my 14km walk (7km up to the ridge and then back again) along the first part of the Goldfield Track.

The nineteen kilometre Goldfield Track leaves the car park at Babinda Boulder and makes its way over the saddle between Mount Bellenden Ker and Mount Battle Frere to the Goldsborough Valley. It follows an old trail forged by miners in the 1930s.

Along the way I kept seeing areas of soil that had very recently been dug up by either a wild boar or a cassowary, so at each turn in the footpath I was expecting to stumble upon the animal leaving these mounds of earth. Hopefully I wouldn’t get attacked by a cassowary as I have read that they are quite vicious!!!

At around the 3km mark and past the sign warning people about stinging trees (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrocnide_excelsa), I met two people doing the same walk as me and we decided to walk together. Matt & Jen had just recently moved to the area from the Gold Coast and were off exploring some of the local walks up here. The walk was quite a tough walk as it was approximately 5km ascent through the very humid jungle.

On the way down we managed to see some of the local wildlife and although I didn’t find the cassowary (or get attached by one) we did have a sighting of a red-bellied black snake and a leach or two....

The Red-bellied Black Snake, Pseudechis porphyriacus, is a species of elapid snake native to eastern Australia. Though its venom is capable of causing significant morbidity, it is not generally fatal and less venomous than other deadly Australian snakes. It is common in woodlands, forests and swamplands of eastern Australia. It is one of Australia's best-known snakes, as it is common in urban areas along the eastern coast of Australia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-bellied_Black_Snake

I rescued Jen from the leech as it was biting the back of her leg and she didn’t know what to do with it. I grabbed the lighter out of my bag, burnt it and it quickly fell off. She asked me how I knew what to do and I told her about my previous leech bites in Thailand and that I had had one crawl up the inside of my trouser leg and bite me.

When we got back down to the beginning of the walk and near to the car park, we decided we would jump in the creek for a quick swim and a cool down. With all this story telling about my last leech, when I took my trouser legs off to jump into the water I saw that I had dry blood that had ran all down my leg from my knee to my socks....those darn leeches!!!

After the dip in the water, I two the two shorter walks down to the Devil’s Pool lookout, and Boulders Gorge lookout to dry off.

One thing that I have noticed already about the Australian rainforests and jungles is that there is always something that will sting you, spike you, bite you or even kill you!!!

After he walk I drove down to Bramston Beach where I had been told that there was a dirt track that I could take that would get me down to the beach with my campervan and although illegal, there would be other campers there and also we would be safe from being found (and prosecuted!).

I found what looked like the road to the beach and although I wasn’t supposed to be going off road in my van, I drove down and parked up about 5m from the beach. I would have got closer but there were a couple of campervans and tents already there. I got speaking to one guy (who was parked right on the beach) and he told me that he comes here every year for 4 months while it’s winter in Melbourne to escape the cold weather.

I parked up and took a 1 hour walk along Bramston Beach before cooking dinner and hitting the sack for the night.