Girringun National Park 

This National Park is home to the Wallaman Falls, which is Australia’s highest continually flowing waterfall at 268m. We day tripped up here from Ingham where we were camping at Palm Tree Caravan Park. The trip took us about an hour and on the final section you might be lucky and spot a cassowary! We didn’t spot one here, but did eventually in the Daintree.

The Djyinda walk down to the bottom of the falls is well worth the 4km return steep hike down and back up on well formed paths. At the bottom we sat for ages mesmerised by the water tumbling down and the gorgeous rainbows it created. From the top you get a different equally dramatic view of the waterfall.  There is camping at Wallaman Falls if you want to stay up here.

Paluma National Park

Olly and Jess who we met on our Whitsunday boat trip joined us to experience some Aussie bush camping in Paluma National Park. We camped at Big Crystal Creek in a lovely open site [There are flushing toilets, cold showers and water which isn’t potable, picnic tables and fire pits]

As soon as we arrived on site we were met by lots of cheeky Kookaburras who dived from the trees, a few equally naughty brush turkeys and a few beautiful Walabys. After setting up camp we got the snow peak fire pit lit and cooked up a wonderful scotch fillet steak sourced from the butcher in Halifax.

The next morning after a relaxing breakfast we drove to Jourama Falls. There is a campground here too and a couple of easy water crossings to get to the start of the 3km return Falls Track . It’s a well graded path with boardwalk across the creeks and Olly and Jess got to see there first Brown snake! At the top we were met with a cascade of waterfalls dropping into stunning crystal clear pools and further backdown the track leads to one of the pools, where we jumped in for a swim.

It was such a nice warm sunny day, which was good as the water could only be described as refreshing. There are stunning huge big blue butterflies at the falls, that shine bright blue in the sunlight, it’s such a gorgeous place.

We spend the afternoon in the hills of Mt Spec after a quick stop at the Frosty mango for some photos with Mr Big mango. They have a lovely arboretum out the back with lots of different fruit and nut trees and the mango ice cream is pretty good too. Rich and I stopped en route to Lucinda here to sample the ice-cream earlier in the week.

It’s so much cooler up in the hills and there are amazing views out over Halifax Bay and the Palm Islands. We did the 3km return walk to Witts Lookout which had incredible views at the lower lookout. On our way back Olly encountered his second brown snake, this time it shot across his feet, after I accidentally upset it by nearly standing on it! This part of the the wet tropics is a beautiful mix of rainforests and open forest.

After lunch at the picnic area we headed back down the winding road and to the campsite. Just behind the site are the incredible paradise pools, which are just stunning!

There is also a short walk up the hill to Rock Slides, but sadly we didn’t have time to head up here as Jess and Olly needed to head back to Bowen. We rounded off the night with another campfire!

Girramay National Park 

On our way to Mission Beach we stopped at the beautiful Murray Falls, had a picnic and did the short river boardwalk which takes you to the base of the falls.

We passed through Caldwell and stopped for a little look around the town. The esplanade is lovely and it has great views of Hinchinbrook Island which we love, checkout why here

Sarah x