Camping at Tinaroo Dam

Life has been very hectic lately with tradesmen and landscapers so we decided that we needed to get away for a mini break - "mini" being the operative word!  We could only manage four nights but even that was better than nothing!

We arrived at Kauri Creek camping ground just after lunch last Sunday.  We were very pleased to see that there were not many other campers....about six camps over the whole area.  We knew that we were going to be in for a quiet time!

It didn't take long to set up our camp right beside a small inlet.  It was the perfect spot for us to launch our kayak and that, after all, was the main reason for camping at this spot.  We haven't had the kayak in the water for many months and we were both looking forward to it.

After setting up camp we sat back and watched a bushfire quickly spreading on the other side of the lake. It had been ignited by some campers who had let their campfire get out of control.  We could see from our vantage point that the rural fire brigade had it under control but it was still a rather large fire.

  

The next day we kayaked over to Fong on Bay Camping Area to have a closer look at the fire and it was sad to see that so many young pine trees had been destroyed. 

We kayaked for a couple of hours meandering in and out of the various inlets.  The water was quite choppy so we tended to stay close to the waterline where it was a little smoother.  It is such a beautiful place and the birdlife around the lake is incredible.

Incredible bird life abounds!

Just another day Kayaking on Tinaroo

Kauri Creek Camping Ground

As we walked around the camp ground on Monday we saw that there were a couple of walks that we thought we might do after our morning Kayak.  The first walk took us a few kilometres to the Downfall Creek Camping Ground.  The interpretive walk was lovely and we stopped many times to read the informative signs.  

Downfall Creek Interpretive Walk

We really liked Downfall Creek and thought that we might camp there next time we are over this way.  The main criteria for us has to be that we are close to the waters edge to launch the kayak as it is quite heavy to have to carry any distance.

The next day we awoke to another cold morning, well, at 6 degrees it seemed cold to us!

Even though it was cold the water didn't look quite as choppy so we decided to launch the kayak again and paddle to School Point Camping Ground.  As Murphy's Law would have it, as soon as we started our journey the wind came up and we had to paddle quite hard to get to our destination.  Once we arrived at School Point we took a walk to stretch our legs and check it out.  We had come here once before to launch the kayak and that day we were eaten alive by March Flies so we left with a rather poor opinion of this camping area.  Sadly, our opinion didn't change much because although it is attractive the camping areas are too far away from the waters edge for us.

We arrived back to our camp mid morning and after a coffee and cake we decided to tackle the Jungal Jungal walk.  This Grade 3 walk is described as a 7.6km round trip, with steeper sections, so we thought we would just walk to the first creek crossing and turn around. I really don't like steep walks!

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We walked and walked and walked and still hadn't reached the creek crossing.  We made our way up the Spur Climb.  The climb went on and on and just when you thought you had reached the top there was more to climb. 

We finally reached the creek crossing and decided that we must have walked more than half way so we would continue on instead of turning around, and besides that I really didn't want to have to walk back down that steep climb as most of the way down it would be on your bum and sliding!

As it turned out (and we didn't have a map to confirm) we were only about a third of the way around the track!  Three and a half hours and 8.5 km later we finally made it back to our camp.  We were ill prepared for our walk as we didn't carry any food or water.  Thankfully it was a cool day so we didn't get thirsty and there was plenty of water in the creeks.  However we were very hungry and sat down to lunch at 3.00 pm! We celebrated our mammoth walk with a bottle of Prosecco (for me) and beer for Philip.  In bed very early that night :-)

Kauri Creek

The Jungal Jungal Walk

The beautiful Tick Orchid

The next day, Wednesday, we had to sadly leave this beautiful place, but vowing we would return in the spring months.  It is quite close to us really.....just a two hour drive, so we will definitely return.

Landscaping the Pool Area

The brief to the Landscaper was fairly simple. Give me a formal kitchen herb garden. They nailed it!

We went from this...... 

and slowly transformed it.....

Into this.......

I am beside myself with happiness because it is exactly what I pictured!  All those squares (apart from the outside ones that are filled with mondo grass) are now filled with herbs that should grow very happily.  We have planted ground cover gardenia below the retaining wall and have planted spider lillies along the pool edge.  The two pots contain blueberries.

Black Rock Falls

or Spring Creek Falls as they are known locally, are situated at the top of Spring Creek that ends at the Mowbray Valley just south of Port Douglas.
Our hiking friends rang us last week to say that they were going to hike to the falls and would we like to join them.  I didn't immediately say yes as from past experience these hikes can be quite difficult.  However, Philip was very keen so we said yes.  In hindsight I probably should have gone with my gut instinct!
We didn't start our hike until almost 9 a.m, as there was a bit of a mix up with the meeting place.  I had googled the falls and my guess was that the hike into the falls would be about 3km or 6km return.  It ended up being a bit more than that.   Our friends had pre-warned us that we would be walking through the creek for most of the way with occasional rock hopping.
The first few kilometres were a relatively easy hike because we were able to follow quite a well worn path that hugged the creek. The next few kilometres were not as easy as we had to do quite a bit of rock hopping that gradually turned into boulder hopping! The walk is a technically challenging walk rather than a strenuous one.
The men are both like mountain goats and they certainly gave me a degree of confidence.  I terminated my walk at the second falls as my confidence failed me at the rock climb that I had to negotiate to proceed to Black Rock Falls.  The other four in our group continued on but one turned back without reaching the falls.
Our very spritely leader, who is 75, really wanted to get to the falls so the two men guided her the rest of the way.  It took them two hours return from when they left me to reach the falls.  Philip said they had to back track quite a lot to find a suitable path that our elderly friend could negotiate.
The hike took us about 8 hours with a stop of about half an hour for lunch.  We did make a lot of photo stops that were always a welcome relief.  Would I do it again?  No.... probably not.

I terminated my walk right here!

The beginning of the walk

Us at the end of the walk

Rock Hopping

Photographers will find any spot for the perfect shot

Rock hopping became Boulder hopping.  Here we are trying to find the best way to negotiate the way up.

This gentleman followed us up to the falls.  Boy was he spritely!

Spring Creek (Black Rock) Falls