Big Bird
Somehow Willy managed to get me out of bed at 5:30am, pack up the tent in the dark, and get on a bus to catch the first ferry back this morning. At first I thought he was crazy, but then remembered we used to wake up at that time every other day for swim practice. After grabbing some much needed coffees, we left Townsville and headed about 60km north to Paluma Range National Park and came across Paradise Lagoon at Big Crystal Creek.
The water was so clear that we ended up jumping in and cooling off in the freshwater. There was a little boy there with his dad jumping off the rocks into the water probably about 3 meters high, and the boy was a great little swimmer and completely fearless. I asked the dad how old he was, turns out the kid was only 3 – very impressive. Curiosity got the best of us when we saw another sign pointing to the “rock slides”. A short walk through the bush revealed a series of waterfalls and swimming holes that were connected by slippery rocks. It was extremely fun to slide right into them and was an efficient way to enter the water. Back on the road, we stopped at Frosty Mango and tried some apple cashew gelato (great morning snack). We took a 50km detour (which took forever because we had to keep stopping for all the Brahmas on the road) to the top of Mount Fox in Girringun National Park. At the top was Wallaman Falls, which are the tallest falls in Australia dropping 305 metres. There is a crazy walk down the bottom that takes over 3 hours and it’s only 1.6km, but it’s incredibly steep.
The water was so clear that we ended up jumping in and cooling off in the freshwater. There was a little boy there with his dad jumping off the rocks into the water probably about 3 meters high, and the boy was a great little swimmer and completely fearless. I asked the dad how old he was, turns out the kid was only 3 – very impressive. Curiosity got the best of us when we saw another sign pointing to the “rock slides”. A short walk through the bush revealed a series of waterfalls and swimming holes that were connected by slippery rocks. It was extremely fun to slide right into them and was an efficient way to enter the water. Back on the road, we stopped at Frosty Mango and tried some apple cashew gelato (great morning snack). We took a 50km detour (which took forever because we had to keep stopping for all the Brahmas on the road) to the top of Mount Fox in Girringun National Park. At the top was Wallaman Falls, which are the tallest falls in Australia dropping 305 metres. There is a crazy walk down the bottom that takes over 3 hours and it’s only 1.6km, but it’s incredibly steep.
