Walls of Jerusalem ~ Part 2: There and Back Again

The first night at camp passed without quite enough sleep – the pillow I had brought wasn’t really up to the job, the camping platform was dry but very hard, and I had been a bit too cold but also a bit too lazy to move and get an extra layer on.

I still didn’t feel too bad though, and was excited to explore further into the park with a day of hiking ahead of us. Getting up and dressed and boiling water for brews and freeze-dried fruity porridge, I also took the chance to chat to our neighbours again for information about the walks available to us in our time frame. Going over the map together we identified a few possibilities that were good for day hikes.

Taking map and compass, brew kit, lunch, snacks, warm gear and wet weather gear with us, we set off for the day. We continued on the trail we had followed to the camp site as it wound its way deeper into the park. A short uphill section to leave the camping area behind, and we were passing Herod's Gate and once again on more level ground in the central basin. The track here was a combination on board walk and natural path, and in the clear fine weather navigation was no trouble at all.

Passing more beautiful scenery of towering rock walls and picturesque tarns, our first little stop was to take a short detour off the main path to see the Pool of Bethesda. This would have been a glorious spot for lunch or even just a brew, but as we had not been walking long at all by this point we decided instead to push on before taking a proper break.

The Pool of Bethesda

Not much further along the boardwalk and we were at Damascus Gate, the saddle between Solomon’s Throne and The Temple. I had expected it to take much longer to reach this point, so we thought we might tackle one of these side tracks on the return.

Walking up to the saddle

Continuing through the saddle, the path passed through some more stunning scenery and beautiful tarns, before winding its way amongst gnarled trees and then depositing us in the vivid green beauty of Dixon’s Kingdom, another camping area on the trail.

Dixon’s Kingdom has its own historic hut too, although camping is not allowed in the hut itself. The landscape, the flora, and the hyper-real greenness of this place give it the feel of Tolkien’s Shire, and you almost expect to see Hobbits running for cover as you approach.

A fallen tree in the shade here gives us another perfect spot to sit and put the brews on, so we use the facilities here and have our first break. I try to read a bit on my Kindle as I sip my tea, but my gaze is constantly drawn back up to drink in our magical surroundings.

Rest time over, we continue along the path towards Mount Jerusalem. The track up to the summit is signed off the main track, and then marked with triangular markers on metal posts every so often. The track climbs through the rocky ground, until it starts to traverse another plateau area peppered with the most beautiful little tarns. Every angle produces another photo-worthy view, and these little lakes scattered around at different levels are simply beautiful.

Pausing frequently to absorb the new vistas that each turn of the track reveals, we eventually make it to the next uphill section. We follow the rocky path all the way to the top of Mount Jerusalem, and are greeted by views of the wilderness as far as the eye can see. Simply spectacular. We take a lot of time at the top just to marvel at this expanse of nature, and to dream of having the time and gear to be able to go off exploring for a few days. 

We can also see the track continuing into the park beyond where we left it to summit Mount Jerusalem, and I can’t help wishing that we were going to carry on further after descending. 

Easily finding a suitable spot for lunch, we fire up the Jetboil for more brews and tuck in to our supermarket lunches. I have opted for a readymade pot of pasta and veggies in a tomato sauce. Securely packaged and not requiring refrigeration, I had thought this would be a good option. You are meant to microwave it before eating, but the sun has warmed it a bit. That’s the same thing, surely?? I have a handful of my dried fruit mix and cashews as ‘desert’, and the hot sweet tea with this incredible view is just perfect.

A brew with a view ;)

Reluctantly, we of course have to leave this little spot and return to camp. The walk back down is trickier for me than the ascent as I get painful knees and my injured ankle is not yet fully mobile. Taking my time it’s nothing I can’t handle, and we get back to the main track and turn back towards Dixon’s Kingdom again. From there, we are at Damascus Gate again in no time. Knowing we are an easy walk back to camp, we decide to drop our kit and head up The Throne before continuing back.

The path up here is made mostly from large loose rocks that have been shifted to offer flat, level sides to your boots. It really is remarkable to think of the work that has gone in to making these defined, stable paths out of the loose rock piles up the side.

The view from The Throne

By the time we get to the top on this occasion, I am starting to feel a bit tired, so after admiring the views we head back down again and collect our gear, then hit the boardwalk back to camp.

On the walk back we encounter our first mammalian wildlife inside the Walls – apart from the possums that were scratching around our tent last night – in the extremely fluffy shape of these Bennet’s Wallabies. They look so cuddly to me with their soft shaggy fur. Gorgeous :)

Boots off, dinner on. Perfect :)

That night I improved the pillow situation by folding it in half and wrapping my microfiber towel around it to keep it doubled up, I wear an extra jumper along with my hat, gloves, socks and PJs, and suck it up that the ground is hard. I sleep great and wake up raring to go – if a little achy. I also had my next significant wildlife encounter on the way back from the loo, this handsome snake on the path. Fortunately I saw him in time to stop without getting too close, and the snake glided off the path to bask in the short grass nearby.

This is our final day in the Park, so we try to make the most of it by heading back to Damascus Gate to walk up Solomon’s Throne. The hike up is steep and rocky, but the views from the top are very much worth it. Spectacular.

The view to King David's Peak

I long to walk further along the ridge to the top of King David’s Peak, but it’s not sensible to do this with the walk out still ahead of us, so reluctantly we descend again and return to camp. Here, we make lunch and then pack up our camp and leave. Making use of the toilet one last time, we have yet another brilliant wildlife encounter in the prickly form of this cute little echidna snuffling around the path.

The walk out is as picturesque as it was on the way in, and I feel a little sad to be leaving so soon. 

I definitely plan to return!

Walls of Jerusalem ~ Part 1: Getting There

I just got back from a pretty short-notice trip to Tasmania – and it was fantastic!! I have definitely been bitten by the Tassie bug and hope to go back many more times to explore more of this island state (that’s an Australian state, not a sovereign state…)

The main aim of this trip was to do some hiking, but being short notice there was no time to particularly build up any load-carrying fitness, so I wasn’t confident of doing a point-to-point hike, carrying everything on each leg. Instead therefore, we opted for a basecamp style of hiking, setting up our tent on arrival, and making day hikes out from our base.

Deciding that the place to be was the Walls of Jerusalem National Park, within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, our brief research showed us that we had to buy a permit before heading to the Park. We would also need to make sure that we took a camp stove and cooking gear that would not interfere with the natural environment, and a trowel for burying anything we left behind when there was no access to toilets. All food and gear would need to be carried in on foot, and all rubbish would need to be carried back out again too.

Our trip began in Hobart, where we had a little time to top up our kit with things that were deficient or that we couldn’t bring on the plane – we needed to get our map, gas for the Jetboil, camping food, snacks, I needed some long trousers, and additionally we just browsed the outdoorsy shops and book shops in Hobart, enjoyed the Salamanca Markets, and took in far more hearty food and good beer than was necessary.

Before heading out to a National Park in the Tasmanian Wilderness with plenty of kit that we had never used before, I decided that it would be a good idea to camp somewhere with facilities, somewhere that we could use all our gear, but if all went wrong then we wouldn’t be actually stranded. For our shake-out camp we headed to the small town of Deloraine, much closer to the Walls of Jerusalem National Park and boasting a riverside camping area.

Slightly melodramatic sign at the campsite

We set up the tent (a 3 person Vango Banshee) with no dramas, all the appropriate sleeping gear was there. The Jetboil worked just fine, and we even tested out our experimental purchase of a tube of condensed milk for our brews. This worked surprisingly well I have to say, and I enjoyed my riverside cuppa very much. The evening was perfected by watching playful duckbilled platypuses – the first I had ever seen – swimming about in the river. They were adorable, and I absolutely fell in love with them. The happy memories of watching them in the river was even enough to sustain my good mood through the various times during the night that I was woken by ridiculously loud trains passing next to the camp site, their horns blaring continuously and their lights making it bright as day inside the tent.

A platypus, having a good look at me having a good look at him.

The next morning we repacked all our gear, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Vango Banshee was pretty easy to pack away again back into its original neat format and small size. Getting breakfast on the way, the next stop was in Mole Creek to find out exactly where to buy the Parks passes from. The lady I spoke to directed us to the visitor office for King Solomon’s Caves down the road, from where we could purchase passes. This was pretty straight forward too; the Ranger did a quick sanity check on us to make sure we knew we couldn’t just bumble around the Park for a day visit and had the right gear, and the passes weren’t too pricey either at $30 each - another nice surprise.

There was now nothing stopping us, so with all kit for living and camping for 3-4 days packed into our larger hiking rucksacks, we headed for the NP. It took a fair amount of driving on gravel roads to make it to the car park for the NP, and then the only way into the actual Park is on foot. Following a well-defined track from the carpark, we signed into the Park at the unmanned Ranger Hut and then continued through the woods, heading mostly fairly steeply uphill, towards the Park. 

The road towards the National Park

We went at a steady pace, and I was relieved to find that my pack didn’t feel like it was getting any heavier as I got more tired. I put this down to the 'Bioflex' harness on my 10-year-old 65+10 litre Berghaus pack, which was well padded, fully adjustable, and extremely comfortable. This is the first time I have properly used my rucksack for real active stuff rather than just backpacking trips, so it was great to find that the harness was really comfortable even with a heavy load over rough terrain for several hours.

Part of the first section of trail, heading into the National Park

A few steep sections of trail, broken by short less-steep sections and occasional small creek crossings that were almost dry at the time we were hiking, brought us eventually to the Trappers Hut. This is a small wooden hut which is part of the history of the trail, and contains information boards to tell its story. Just upslope from the hut was a fallen tree and some exposed rocks which made a very convenient spot for a sit down and a brew, so we took our first break and fired up the Jetboil.

The Trappers Hut

Refreshed, we carried on upwards through the trees along the defined trail, until the steepest part of the trek in was over and we had reached more of a plateau region. Here the trees thinned out giving bigger views, and the ground was dotted with pretty tarns, named King Solomon's Jewels.

The trail continued to wind its way over the landscape, now more winding and with shorter and gentler climbs and descents. Here the path was dirt, there it passed over a section of rock. Here it pushed through shrubbery, there it passed the edge of a tarn. Each short climb or bend produced new and spectacular views.

Eventually, after more winding and undulation, the path led through some hilly parts to a bit of a valley floor, on the other side of which you could just make out the brightly coloured shapes of tents. A boardwalk continued the path across the valley and deposited us at Wild Dog Campsite.

Relieved to have arrived – no matter how comfortable the pack was I still had my limitations – I picked the first free camping platform I came across and dropped all my gear. Removing my boots felt gooood!! Having lived in north Queensland for over a year now, I rarely wear anything but flip flops (or ‘thongs’) so am not accustomed to walking in boots.

Camping on a wooden platform presents its own challenges, especially when your tent cannot stand by itself, like the Vango Banshee which is a tunnel construction and so requires tension in the fly sheet to keep it up. Eventually though, with a bit of ingenuity, perseverance, and some advice and extra string from the family on the next platform along, our home was erected and it was time for a warm jumper, a brew and some dinner.

It felt fantastic to finish off the day’s walking with some warm food prepared with a camp stove (even if the only preparation required for the freeze dried food we had chosen was to boil up some water and stir…), and another hot, sweet brew.

As a bit of a luxury I had brought some entertainment in the shape of a pack of cards and my Kindle Paperwhite. Playing ‘beanie’ until dark and then tucking into my layers of sleeping bag and liners, reading until sleepy, I felt very content :)

FNQ Road Trip Planning!

Beforehand I was really busy researching plans for a road trip from Townsville, so that when my friend from home and her 2 kids arrived for their visit, they would already have ideas for what to do - and could spend their time here carrying out plans, not making them!

A lot of time and effort went into these plans, so it seemed a shame to just delete them. Instead, I thought I would post them up here so that they can maybe help someone else who is planning something similar. I have edited it slightly so that it makes sense for here, and to reflect what we did if it differed a lot from the plan. Of course none of this is exhaustive - there are always more options!

Far North Queensland Road Trip – an example itinerary (with costings where possible)

Just a little note about the prices I’m quoting – most places say that 16 is the adult/child age boundary, but some say 14. They were correct at the time of writing...

Day 1: Townsville to the Cassowary Coast (Mission Beach or Kurramine Beach)

Leave Townsville in the morning, stop off on the way to get ice cream at Frosty Mango!

Continue on to see the Wallaman Falls – the tallest single-drop waterfall in Australia, and in the World Heritage listed Wet Tropics region. This is a bit further along from Trebonne on the map above. We’ll be there at the best time of year for visiting, and can go for a short walk to view the falls and maybe see some wildlife, perhaps even a platypus.

Head back to the highway and carry on north: Cardwell is a good spot to stop for a coffee if needed, lunch or a snack if that’s the time we are there, and it has a bit of a walkway with nice views of Hinchinbrook Island for stretching our legs if we want.

Tully is one of the spots in Australia that claims to be the wettest (have the highest rainfall). Australia likes ‘Big Things’, and Tully has a big welly boot – The Golden Gumboot – to mark the heights of its floods. It’s worth a quick look as it only takes 5 mins.

Camp at the Cassowary Coast. Council camp sites there are $17 total for 1 night. Mission Beach or Kurrimine Beach sites are best as they have hot water, showers and toilets, and BBQs if we want to cook our own food. The 2 places are near to each other, so wherever we stay we can visit both: Mission Beach has 14km of beach, while Kurrimine Beach is the place where the Reef is closest to the shore – King Reef is only 800m away!! You register on arrival for these, so we can potentially look at both and decide which we prefer. (These sites were full when we arrived, so we camped at the Jackaroo Hostel instead.)

Day 2: Cassowary Coast to Cairns

Get up at a reasonable time, shower and pack up. Breakfast could either be food we’ve brought with us, or we could have brekkie at a cafe.

Enjoy Mission Beach for a while, and maybe snorkel near the Great Barrier Reef from Kurrimine Beach!

Depending on how long we want to stay around there, we could have lunch in the area, and leave at around 2pm to make sure we get to Cairns before dark, or we could travel on a bit further before stopping for lunch. If time allows, we should take in the Babinda Boulders on the way, as it’s another beautiful and free thing to do!

I also found another National Park as a different option, Mount Hypipamee National Park. It has an old volcanic crater that is now a lagoon, with walking paths and waterfalls etc. And apparently, there are tree kangaroos there!! You can camp there, so it could be another overnight spot either on the way north or on the return journey south. (...we didn't do this)

Check into accommodation and head into Cairns to see the night markets. Have dinner either in Cairns or cook ourselves.

Accommodation options for Cairns includes YHA or camping. We ended up camping at the Cairns Holiday Park. It was pretty good with all the facilities you need, and well situated for doing stuff around the city.

Day 3: Cairns and around, 2-3 days probably

Cairns city doesn’t have much to see in terms of sights, but it might be good to have a day there to check out all options for booking trips to the reef (if we haven’t already done so in advance). If more beaches are required we can drive out to Palm Cove for a bit. 

 

There is a free outdoor pool on the Esplanade we could use if we wanted some time actually in Cairns. There are also the night markets to visit if we didn’t see these on the first evening, these are touristy and have some fun stuff to see.

From Cairns, there are several things to do:

1. The Kuranda Scenic Railway and Skyrail: $110 each ($55 for Child). If this is too expensive, we can drive to the same place as the train goes and try to see as much as possible that is similar to what you would get on the train. There is also the option to do just the train ride, and I can meet you at the top and drive us back after we've had a look around Kuranda.

2. Boat trips and snorkelling to see the Great Barrier Reef and all the fish and turtles etc: it is expensive to go out deeper into the reef, which would be the best parts to see. The cheapest way to see the reef is if we get a boat to Green Island, $88 each ($44 for Child), then do our own snorkelling for free from the beaches there. You can also book paid-for snorkel tours from this island that take you to see more of the corals etc, $44 each ($29 for Child). To go to the reef proper, I haven’t yet been able to find a trip for less than hundreds of dollars each.

3. Some of the aboriginal cultural experiences are near Cairns: Tjapukai is $60 each 

(We did 1 & 2 above, but not 3)

Day ~5-6: Port Douglas and Daintree – can be done as day trips, or as more road trip if we want to keep going :)

Port Douglas isn’t too far from Cairns, and it’s a beautiful drive where the road hugs the coastline, with plenty of places that you just want to stop at and admire the view. Port Douglas itself is pretty and has plenty of tourist shops, plus an impressive looking YHA, and a beach called Four Mile Beach.

We could do this as either a day trip from Cairns if we didn’t want to travel much further, or it could be the next part of the road trip, either staying in/near Port Douglas overnight or carrying on further.

From PD, if we decide not to road trip any further then we can still do a 1 hour river cruise up at Daintree to see crocodiles and other wildlife - this trip was only $25 per adult when I did it before Christmas, so I don’t think it will have gone up by much, if at all, since then. (This is also possible as day trip from Cairns if we stop road tripping there)

That area is also in the Daintree Rainforest, which is the largest rainforest in Australia, and yet another World Heritage Site! (After the Reef, and the Wet Tropics). The cheapest way to visit the rainforest seems to be via Mossman, which has the Mossman Gorge. You can do self-guided walks and swim in the water holes, and it looks beautiful. There is also the opportunity to do an Aboriginal experience here, $60 each again ($30 for Child) as an alternative to the one at Cairns.  

The rainforest might need a day of its own, in which case we could stay at Port Douglas another night, or possibly stay at Daintree. (I can’t find much about accommodation in Daintree online, but I’m sure when I was there I saw hostels or campsites).

(We didn't go to Port Douglas or, unfortunately, Mossman Gorge, but did spot crocodiles on the Daintree before continuing to Cape Tribulation on Day 5)

Day ~7 onwards: Cape Tribulation

Cape Tribulation looks fun to get to, it involves taking the Daintree River Ferry, tropical Australia’s only cable ferry apparently… This area just looks stunning, and here the Daintree Rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef. You can do things like kayaking trips to explore, and possibly see turtles, dolphins, dugongs etc ($85, $60 for Child). There is ziplining in the jungle for $95 each. There is also Captain Cook history as he ran his boat aground near there, before going on to what is now Cooktown to fix it up again.

For free, there are boardwalks with information boards taking you through the rainforest/mangroves, with loads of wildlife to see and the evolution of land plants in evidence as some of the forest is from the prehistoric Gondwana super-continent (pretty WOW!)

There’s probably more to do as well, as I’ve seen Cape Trib advertised as a destination for travellers in loads of places. There seem to be plenty of camping options there, and there is also a YHA. PKs Jungle Village offers camping as an option, it also seems to have a good range of excursions on offer, and can help with making bookings as there is no mobile phone reception in Cape Trib. 

Heading back to Townsville

Driving back from Port Douglas or Cairns, and probably Cape Tribulation, is do-able in 1 day, but we might want to break the journey somewhere along the way. Of course, if we have the money and there was something we feel we missed out on, we could break the journey anyway!