Days 100 - 107 of trip with no particular destination: Ingham to Lucinda to Hinchinbrook Island to Townsville
Day 100: Ingham to Lucinda (Biaigin country)
I did manage to fit in a quick walk around the TYTO Wetlands in Ingham. If for no other reason, Ingham is worth a visit for these wetlands. Here are a few birds I managed to see.
Australasian Darter Little Bronze-cuckoo
Brown Honeyeater Female Green Pygmy-goose
Jacana Masked Lapwing
Pacific Black Duck Red-backed Fairy-wren
After my walk we decided that a pre-6-day-hike morning tea was in order so indulged at a training cafe near the wetlands.
We then departed for Lucinda via Forrest and Taylor Beaches, places we had not seen before. Forrest Beach was not that exciting, a long straight stretch of beach, but Taylor Beach looked worth exploring further. Another time.
At Lucinda we met up with the other four members of our Hinchinbrook walking team, Peter, Scott, Tess and Graeme. As Peter and Michelle had brought up our packs from home, we were at last able to pack for our hike. That didn't take too long, we were more prepared than we had thought.
Day 101: Lucinda to Hinchinbrook Island (Nina Bay) (Bandjin and Girramay country)
The tragedy, I have learned, is that it took white settlers only 10 years (from 1863) to completely exterminate the traditional aboriginal residents of Hinchinbrook island. There was a final massacre and those who managed to swim away were shot. The words, 'I am sorry,' need to be said, but are anything but adequate.
Today our group of six departed from Lucinda by boat to the northern part of Hinchinbrook, specifically to the south part of Ramsay Bay. The boat trip takes about one and a half hours and travels up between the mainland and the island. The morning was quite overcast but the forecast was only for patchy light showers (which turned out to be accurate). Once on the island, we loaded packs and remembered what full packs felt like as we started off down the beach.
After a bit of a hike we unloaded packs for a climb up Nina Peak.
The views, even when cloudy, are pretty amazing and worth the stiff climb up. The beach you see in the next photos is Nina Bay.
We set up camp at Nina Bay, glad that we weren't sharing the campsite at Little Ramsay Bay with the 18 or so people who followed us! The island is only meant to have 40 people on it at any one time. More than half of them arrived today! Still, when we were walking, our group walked alone. We passed people going up and down Nina Peak, but that was it.
At Nina Bay I did some wandering and found a few interesting plants and critters.
This plant is Scaevola taccada. It grows to about 4 metres along most of the beaches on HI.
These skinks are everywhere.
Stick insect
Young coconut palm.
Some sort of fishDay 102: Nina Bay to Little Ramsay Bay
This morning combined moonset with Nina Peak in the foreground and sunrise at lowish tide. Beautiful.
Today was our shortest hike but it does involve a lot of rock/boulder hopping along beaches to start with. It was getting towards high tide when we left which made the start a little trickier.
Once at Little Ramsay Bay, our destination for the day, I had a fair bit of time for a wander. Here are a few things I found.
An assassin bug One of the beach hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus)
The Golden Orchid (Dendrobium discolor)
In addition to this, the patterns on the sand were beautiful. There were a couple of perched lakes on this beach and they must leach through the sand into the sea on a permanent basis because the beach was 'leaking' from dry spots. Here are some of the pictures I took.
I also noticed some interesting crab track patterns. And finally, I managed to capture a photo of a bird that has been accompanying us the whole time - I now know it is a Varied Triller.
To end a lovely day, there was also a beautiful sunset over the lagoon near our camping area.
Day 103: Little Ramsay Bay to Zoe Bay
Another moonset, sunrise morning.
Today was a long trek, 10.5 km according to the trail app, 12.5 km according to my watch. Now this is not a long hike by many definitions, but if you count the rocks and roots you have to avoid on the way, it rates pretty high. However, it is also one of my favourite parts of the hike as it takes you past or through many landscapes: casuarina groves, rainforest, open woodland, marshlands (one of our team lost their shoe in the mud but did manage to retrieve it), fan palm groves, pandanus groves and mangroves, then lastly the open beach.
I also found a beautiful moth as we walked along. I was lucky to see it because of its amazing camouflage but it gave itself away when flying with a very light underside.
There was not a lot of shade available in our lunch spot, but Pete surprised us all by putting up an umbrella for shade! Who takes an umbrella on a hike????
When we arrived at Zoe Bay campsite, we were stunned to find many other people camped there and struggled to find a free campsite. Eventually we bunked down with a larger group, finding a few spare spots to pitch our tents. It really felt like the island was 'full', even though there were probably only half the allowed 40 people at the camp. We hoped, and to our relief found out from the other campers, that they were leaving the next day. Phew - as we are intending to stay two nights here.
Unfortunately, there is a downside to camping here this time, that Pete and I don't remember from last year - biting midges or sandflies. They were awful until the darkness finally fell. All of us are victims to itching, except our friend Pete who looks like he has the measles but doesn't feel a thing!
After our long trek we couldn't resist the extra 800m walk up to Zoe Falls. These falls are beautiful, but best appreciated after a long walk. The fish there are extremely unafraid and likely to nibble at your feet or legs if you don't keep a watch out for them.
Day 103: Zoe Falls, Blue Lagoon
Last year when Pete and I walked the Thorsborne Trail here on Hinchinbrook, we did not go backwards to visit Blue Lagoon when we were at Zoe Bay so this year we decided we would. It is not far (about 3 km from the campsite) and it was quite liberating to be walking without our packs. It did require about 500m of pebble/rock/boulder hopping along a creek bed to get there.
Blue Lagoon was a pretty spot and another lovely place for a swim, although it was pretty cold.
Later in the afternoon, I went for another walk to the end of Zoe Bay to North Zoe Creek. From there was an amazing view that incorporated the Palm Island group of islands out to the east and the central mountains of Hinchinbrook.
Tonight, other than two other people camped a long way away, we are the ONLY people camped at Zoe Bay. What a difference it makes - so peaceful. Unfortunately it doesn't make the midges any better so fully covering ourselves with both clothes and repellent was the only option available. Fortunately, they seemed to disappear when it was properly dark.
Day 104: Zoe Bay to Mulligan Falls
This is probably the hardest day, coming after a rest day and involving lots of ups and downs, rocks and roots. Still it is beautiful if you just take the time to stop and look around.
Creek crossing
A beautiful beetle on a Xanthorrhoea
New banksia growth
Bark pattern Frequent rest stops to recover and look around were the order of the day.
A dip in the plunge pool at the base of Mulligan's Falls was welcome at the end of today's hike.
A couple of birds, namely Noisy Pittas and Pale-yellow Robins, were frequent visitors to our campsite at Mulligan's Falls.
I had a quick wander down to the spot below Mulligan's Falls where the creek finally drops to mangroves. So peaceful.
Day 105: Mulligan's Falls to Lucinda (Biaigin country)
This morning we had our final hours on Hinchinbrook Island with a 10 am pickup at the beach, only about 45 minutes walk from camp. I have mixed feelings at the end of a hike. I'd love to keep exploring, but the thought of a hot shower ...
We said goodbye to Mulligan's Falls, hoping to see the sun on them, but we were too early.
A final walk down the beach.
Then a quick, windy ride boat ride back to Lucinda, with wonderful views of Hinchinbrook Island behind us.
The boat dropped us off at the beach near the caravan park, and just past the Lucinda sugar loading facility (read super-long jetty at 5.76km).
A wonderful time with a wonderful bunch of people. Thanks team!
After hot-showering (yay!!) and sundry jobs, we all headed off for a walk to Dungeness for a pub lunch and a look around there. At Dungeness (just under 2km from Lucinda), there is a viewing tower from which you get a great view of Hinchinbrook and surrounds.
This is a fisher person's paradise. The caravan park is full of cars with boats on trailers, the carpark at Dungeness is full of cars and empty boat trailers. The river is full of boats.
Day 106: Lucinda to Townsville (Wulgurukaba and Bingal countries)
It took us a while to reorganise ourselves before leaving Lucinda. Not only do we now have Singapore luggage and some books from my brother, but we have our hiking gear as well, kindly brought up from home by our friends on the hiking team. The camper is getting full!
The area around Lucinda and Ingham is real sugarcane country and the Victoria Mill between the two towns appears to operate 24/7. It is either the largest or 2nd largest sugar mill in the country.
Our destination? The cheapest caravan park in Townsville. We have our car booked in for a service and this caravan park is very convenient to the service place. It is also quite close to the Townsville foreshores and Castle Hill. We dropped the camper off before going for a bit of a drive around the place. We parted ways with two of our team who flew back home. The others joined us at the caravan park for the night.
Day 107: Townsville
Goodbyes were said to the remaining hikers and our car duly sent off for its service. We were lucky enough to get a loan car from the service centre so we have explored a little more of Townsville today. First we went up Castle Hill. The views from this place are always good.
Magnetic Island looks oh so alluring - it is drawing me in. Could we stay there a while???
Our next stop was the headland at the end of the strand, the old Jezzine Barracks. This area, known as Garabarra by the local aboriginal people, has been given back to the public and the walk around was well worth it. There is a small art gallery (which we visited), a military museum (which we didn't visit), and a number of different walks. There are a number of sculptures along the Ethnobotanical Walk and interesting information about some of the local plants. Pete and I tried the native peanut. Okay.
Beautiful podsThis is the native peanut (Sterculia quadrifida) - tastes a little similar to a real peanut.
We then drove out to Cape Pallarenda, about 5 or 6 km north of Jezzine Barracks. Again there are many walks you can do. We chose to do a 1.5 km return walk to Shelley Cove. This passes by a couple of old forts that were used for surveillance during WWII. Again, Magnetic Island lures.
The Shelley Cove Trail was a butterfly haven. So many. Here are a couple.
The view back to Townsville is a good one too.
Our final port of call today before picking up the car from its service was Queens Gardens, a beautiful park where the trees are on steroids. Pete measured the branch of one curtain fig at 30 metres long! In the first photo below, Pete is standing under this incredible branch. The aerial roots of a couple of pandanus palms were at least twice as tall as Pete. (He is in the second of the pandanus photos.)
We were sorely tempted to spend some more time at Magnetic Island but we have resisted the urge. We are homeward bound now.
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