An outing.

An outing.

Posted on 7 Aug, 2008 4 comments

Yesterday we went out for the day. We went bush! We have some friends staying, who are travelling around Oz in their caravan, which is parked on our lawn at the moment, lol. But they had not seen the rainforest yet. So half an hours drive from here, we went to the Boulders in Babinda. The mainroad goes through canefields and has wonderful views towards the mountains on either side. Here and there lovely properties with great gardens.We reached this village, which is off the Highway. This road leads through the village, where all old fashioned single story, but off the ground wooden houses are, the shops, police station, the school, restaurant, art shop etc. Then it meanders, slowly rising into the hills, passing lovely old cottages with the most wonderful lush green tropical gardens and lawns. Crossing several bridges over creeks we arrived at the parking place. Not difficult to find a spot and there were many in the shade, as it was a weekday. We followed the sealed path underneath the giant trees. There were ficus trees, palm trees, mahoganies, native banana’s and many of which I do not know the names ( yet ). There is also the very dangerous stinging trees which can grow to 10m. but I only saw a few small ones. They have a heart shaped rather large leaf. Touching the tree or its leaves is extremely painful, you can develop a rash and get sick from them. Would you believe that the fruit of this tree is edible, yet you’d have trouble picking them? I suppose wearing a wetsuit and rubber gloves would do the trick, but not many people would bring those along. Plenty of ferns made up for lovely edges along the path. Soft spreading fern, straight up fern and fern growing along the tree trunks and even just against and up the tree or in their forks high above the groud. Bird nest fern, basket fern, many kinds. And of course lots of trees are partly covered with mosses, small leaved creepers or spikey nasty vines. You follow the river which twines through the valley, and here and there you are at high points, looking down onto the boulders in the river. At dangerous points there are safety fences with warning signs not to venture outside that spot. Here and there are viewing platforms, at some you can actually get quite close to the water and dangle your feet in it or just bask in the sun sitting on the boulders and simply taking it all in whilst listening to the birds and the thundering of the water cascading down the rocks. The weather was magnificent, not too cold not too hot, perfect. Then we reached the last viewing platform and back to the carpark. Well it is more or less a park, beautifully laid out and here and there spots for cars. But there are also pic nic benches set out. And we brought our pic nic. The guys got it from the car and we spread the tablecloth and set the table. Out came the goodies and drinks. With the water nearby and in its sound in the background, in the shade of high rainforest trees we just sat there enjoying our lunch in peace. Then came a visitor, which just happened to appear outof the scrub. It was the Brush Turkey.Black with bright red and yellow, as if he had a collar on. We tried to take a good shot of it, but every time you had aimed, he just quickly walked on, then came back and went again. He played a kind of game with us I think.
After lunch, we packed up and took the other path, going upstream. This was a much rougher one. It was not sealed, just a bit of gravel. It also was narrower. It was quieter and even more interesting. Thick forest and lovely plants exhibited in front and beside us. This is where I found the white gardenia like flowers. We crossed the creeks and tributaries of the river several times. Lucky in this season there is not so much water left and we could cross them, stepping on riverstones. Only once was there a bridge. It all was lovely, romantic and even exciting. We felt like explorers in the jungle. We even saw wild pig diggings, which added to the adventure. I had taken many pictures and suddenly I realised I had lost my sunglasses! I hadn’t worn them in this whole section as it was too dark there in the shade. This track goes on for hours it seemed and we finally decided to turn back. I was keen to find my glasses anyway. I vaguely remembered I had put them down beside me when taking a picture of the river whilst squatting. And so I had! I found them there lying on the ground beside the rivers bank, where people would be not be likely to walk. As I said, it was a weekday and I was lucky. It was now 3 pm and we went back to the car and headed for home. We had a lovely day!

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