Palm Cove to Stirling Day 1

September 14th 2022

We bid farewell to Palm Cove, after in turns both a busy and relaxing stay. Hard to believe it is now 40 days since we left our home in Stirling. The heat and humidity is building in the tropics as we move ever closer to the wet season. News from home is that the weather has remained cool and wet, another La Nina season, the third year in a row, is building sending more moisture across Australia and hopefully not, increased risk of flooding on the east coast, across lower Queensland and Northern NSW.

Our day starts with bright sunshine, temperatures quickly rising to 29c or 88f. We need to be out of our accommodation by 10am but our target is earlier than that. Tracking down all our belongings, packing the car, putting out the trash, etc. etc., all mundane tasks that although mostly completed last night seem to take for ever, or is it that we just move a little slower than we used to. We turn the key in the door to lock position and the ignition in the car to on at about 9.30am. It is not long before we are driving down the Captain Cook Highway heading for the Mamu Tropical Skywalk. Our drive takes us south, skirting Cairns to the west, connecting with the Bruce Highway in the direction of Innisfail. The Bruce Highway runs parallel with the coast but inland along a broad valley floor, ideal for sugar cane production. Some of Queensland’s highest mountains are in this vicinity. Mount Haig, Mount Bellenden Ker, Mount Bartle Frere with a north and south peak is the highest at 1622 metres. All are heavily forested with rainforest that would have come down across the valley floor and to the sea in the days before white settlers cleared the land.

Palm Cove to Mamu Skywalk

We stop off at Baibinda a town that has a charming railway station with echoes of the past then our journey turns eastward.

Babinda Railway Station

Just before we reach Innisfail to climb into those mountains, the cane fields give way to banana and papaya plantations. The occasional groves of passion fruit vines covering acres across a network of trellises also pass us by, their distinctive white and purple centred flowers standing out against the green of the vine leaves. This all gives way to rainforest, the higher we climb until we reach our destination. The Skywalk site is situated in the World Heritage Wooroonooran National Park.

The Mamu Skywalk is a unique opportunity to explore the rainforest from the forest floor to the canopy, The Skywalk passes through one of the largest remaining continuous stands of complex vine forest on basalt soils in the Wet Tropics. Rainforest plants, insects and bird habitats remain intact, with sweeping vistas of waterways and the rain-forested mountains that surround the area. This rainforest area is linked to the Ma:mu aboriginal tribe that lived here for 2000 generations. 7 generations have seen the rainforest gradually cleared by European settlers but have retained a strong connection to the area, now having control over some of the lands their forebears called home. The Ma:Mu had developed a well travelled network of tracks through the rainforest that linked various camps. They would move seasonally from camp to camp depending on the rainforests food sources. Open cleared areas would be maintained for tribal or clan gatherings. The Ma:Mu had no need to traverse great distances all they needed would be provided for by the rainforest. They constructed primitive housing called Mia Mias, constructed of barbed lawyer cane for frame work (so called because once a lawyer has hold of you then they hang on) (My apologies to the lawyers reading this) with layers of palm fronds covering the frame to make a weatherproof shelter.

Original Photo of Mia Mias Aboriginal Huts of the Ma:Mu
Reconstruction of the Mia Mia Huts today

This joint venture between the Ma:Mu and private enterprise sees a network of pathways that run through heavily forested terrain. An opportunity became available to build in this protected area after cyclone Larry cut a swath through the park in 2006. Natural areas cleared by the cyclone allowed for minimal impact, materials such as unpainted galvanised steel and recycled plastic became the walkways and boardwalks of today. The gravelled pathways connect to raised cantilevered walkways/boardwalks that hang out over the slopes of the mountains, giving a birds eye view of the rainforest and the picturesque vistas that the elevated height allows.

Gravelled pathway through the rainforest
Section of Cantilevered Boardwalk high in the rainforest

The walking paths amount to a 1200 metre round trip, with 350 metres cantilevered along the way. At the halfway mark a 350 metre tower rises out of the rainforest, ascending the steel framed tower is by steps made of gridded steel needing at least a moderate head for heights. Amanda watched me ascend staying firmly grounded in the rainforest, the see through steps just not her cup of tea.

View from the 350 metre high Skywalk tower
The stairs descending the Skywalk Tower with the rapids just visible below.

The entire experience takes about 2 hours of walking with stops to gasp at the views and study the information provided on local birds, butterflies and animals along the way. The sounds of the rainforest are ever present, cheerful melodious bird calls, shrieks of white cockatoos as they fly overhead. The buzz of cicadas, and other insects as well as croaking frogs. The creature that is on top of most visitors list is the Cassowary, unfortunately a very shy but large flightless bird that keeps to itself in the rainforest. Unlike our humpback whales in Townsville the local Cassowaries kept themselves well hidden today.

A Feathery Rainforest Canopy
Mamu Skywalk to Mission Beach

Time to move onto tonights destination Mission Beach. We travel east again towards the coast until we reach the Bruce Highway. Then south through, yes more cane fields until again turning east, winding our way through narrow roadways that are cut out of the thick lush rainforest. This is how Palm Cove must have looked before development took hold. Here the rainforest does come down to the Coral Sea at the northern end of the Whitsunday Islands. The Hotel we are staying at is aptly named Castaways, as the town does indeed appear isolated, with rainforest to the west and ocean to the east. A quick walk through reception opens up a scenic view of the Palm tree lined beach and Coral Sea. With Dunk Island on the northern end of the Whitsunday islands in sight a little to our south. The sandy beach itself stretches for kilometres in either direction. After a much needed coffee we stroll a little of the beach.

The Sign was True to its word
Coconut washed up on Mission Beach, Dunk Island in the Background

Then return to our room to rest up before dinner. We enjoy a very pleasant evening listening to the waves ebb and flow just metres away before retiring to our room. As I write the sounds and smells of the sea fill the air through the open balcony doors, the constant repetitive lapping has already sent my dear Amanda to sleep after her stressful night last night packing.

Mission Beach

We will have a little time tomorrow to investigate the town further, but are already wishing we had booked more nights here. We travel to Airlie Beach some 600 kilometres tomorrow for a two night stay. Stay tuned as our journey of discovery along the Coral Sea Coast continues..