19 - 22 June Rolling on in, in Rollingstone

It felt like time to get back to nature and all that I had read said that Paluma National Park was the place to do it. To get there we had our shortest journey yet– all of an hour.   

When I say northern Queensland I suspect images of white sandy palm fringed beaches and coral reefs spring into your mind.  But I love the coast of Queensland for the quantity of amazing rainforests – from Springbrook and Lamington National Parks on the border to the Daintree past Cairns.  The green, the dark, the damp, the smell, the streams, the waterfalls, the views, the walks.  OK you also get the leeches, the mosquitos, the lawyer vines and stinging nettle plants – but they are so worth it! 

Paluma Range National Park is the southern gateway for the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, it has two sections and a number of walks so we decided to stay nearby for a couple of days.  We stayed at the Rollingstone Beach Caravan Resort which was on the beach and down a road fringed with pineapple fields.  Having just been in Townsville where there were people swimming in the sea under the eagle eyed vision of lifeguards, we asked if it was safe to swim here only to be told of course not, crocs had been spotted off the beach.  Sure enough all along the beach front were warning signs to this effect.  I was left wondering why crocs near the beach in Townsville weren’t dangerous and yet here they were and we were only 60 km away.  However, the park had a great pool so we contented ourselves by swimming there instead.

The caravan park afforded some lovely views over nearby islands and as we were on a small peninsula we had both sunrise and sunset opportunities.  It is a large caravan park meaning you have a long beach frontage as well – great for those sunrise and sunset walks.

Paluma Range National Park - Jourama Falls

A short drive down the Bruce Highway saw us at the Jourama Falls section of the park.  We started with a picnic lunch at the day use area which had a lovely water hole and creek.  Whilst we didn’t swim, the boys did feed the many fish and turtles from a swimming platform and we were treated to a range of rainforest birds (most of which didn’t stop long enough to have their photo taken, one did however).

A short scenic drive up the road took us to the Jourama Falls walk only 3km but many people on Trip Advisor and even the national park website warned us that it was a good 600m uphill, and they were right, but the view of the falls from the lookout was worth it (however, as I drank in the sight of the falls, and oxygen after the steep hike, I couldn’t help wondering what this would look like in a good wet).

The walk to and from the falls lookout is lovely.  Waterview Creek runs over rocks making lovely little rock pools and scenic views the whole track long.  We took a turn and walked up the creek bed to explore.  The boys really enjoyed the rock climbing and exploring.

We finished off the day with a stop on the way home at the Frosty Mango – Mr L asserted that this was one of the best mango ice creams he had ever eaten and from the smile on his face this did seem to be the case.