Paluma - Rock Slides and Paradise (lost?)

So we had more rain and more wind (but hey we're getting good at that).  The boys tried to watch an outdoor movie at the caravan park (most are too late but this was at a good time).  They sat huddled on their camping chairs under their blankets (the breeze was cool and strong) but even with their valiant efforts (it was Speedy Gonzales after all), they couldn’t make it.  They couldn’t hear the movie for the wind and were more than a tad chilly when they returned to the van.  The next day, because of the weather, we opted for a mostly driving vs walking day and headed for the township of Paluma.

The road is a narrow windy road which wends its way up through the rainforest – it reminded me very much of the road to Dorrigo National Park.  Part way up the road you come across the first of the crystal creeks – little crystal creek.  With no rain falling we jumped out of the car to explore and were glad we did. It was a beautiful area.  Firstly, the bridge over the creek which was constructed between 1930 and 1935 as part of the Unemployment Relief Scheme during the Great Depression. The bridge was constructed with concrete but faced with stone and has a Roman quality about it. At the point the creek flows under the bridge there are cascades and rock pools you can swim in (not the right day for it).  It was absolutely lovely and I can imagine on a hot summer day many people would want to escape the Townsville heat and come here.

We continued our journey up the mountain and arrived in the very small and very quaint village of Paluma.  We were greeted by this sign and were glad we didn’t break these rules as neither of us had a pound on us.

We stopped for a yummy afternoon tea – Mr L had a slice of apple pie almost the size of his face and finished it (impressive).  And then we explored some of the short rainforest walks in the village. 

 Gotta say I love a good fungi - I am really such a science nerd

 Really they are happy, they did enjoy the walks.  Please believe me.

We also explored the village (which was very small and didn’t take long).  There were a couple of cafes, some holiday rentals, and some local artists. In particular Mr L wanted to visit Paluma Pottery which we did.  The kiln was set up in the front garden (actually took up most of the front garden) with the show ‘shed’ down the back.  We liked many of the pieces we saw (especially some of the bigger ones which would have worked beautifully in our garden) but alas budget and carrying anything big in the caravan prevented us from buying anything but a small rememberance of this village in the clouds.

Not the pieces we wanted to but of course, but they did match the spirit of this village

Big Crystal Creek

The next day, the rain had eased so this time we had our swimmers on as we set of to investigate Big Crystal Creek and two cool sounding places, Paradise Waterhole and Rock Slides.  We drove past Paradise Waterhole and headed straight for the rock slides (at the insistence of our boys).  After a short walk from the carpark we arrived at a sensational stretch of the creek which cascaded and cascaded over magnificent rocks falling into crystal clear pools – eminently swimmable. We worked our way up the cascades and found the rock slides which the boys enjoyed as much as they had thought they would.  David and I less so because we kept having to haul them up from the bottom of one slide back to its top to slide all over again. The next day I remarked to David that I must have slept very strangely as I had such a sore right shoulder until he reminded me of this very activity which was of course done with the same arm and shoulder for so very many goes.

After our swim here we were really looking forward to Paradise Waterhole and had even brought our snorkel gear to check out the fresh water fish that apparently you can see here.  We leapt out of the car eager and keen and with every step towards Paradise it rained harder and harder.  If I had been there by myself I would have been in like Flynn (but my family knows that at sometime I probably had some dolphin genes inserted).  The rest of the clan were less than keen, actually they were keen only to get back in the car which we did.  So in summarising our trip in the future I can say we did amazing and super cool things – but we did miss out on Paradise.  Maybe we might have to add Crystal Creek into a future winter holiday in Townsville (mmmmmmmm?????). 

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.