G’day all,
One of the goals I set myself was to climb every highest peak in each state. I have been tracking along rather well and have already climbed most of the difficult peaks. What some of you may not know is that my daughter…Joey Jess…has also got it in her bonnet that she will climb the peaks with me.
So…the last week has all been about finding a clear or clearish day for her to give Bartle Frere a push.
We travelled from Mossman to Cairns early this week where we enjoyed two nights at the Coconut Holiday Park. One of these days was used to go and check out Barron Falls and Kuranda Village.
Kuranda Village has markets every day and we all enjoyed walking around the markets and browsing the shops. The markets are not huge but they are fun to visit.
Next it was onto Barron Falls. These falls are quite spectacular. The drop on these falls at the Barron Gorge are unbelievable and really a sight to behold. When there you struggle to get a feel of the enormity of the gorge because it seems to keep going and going such is the scale of this place. I can only imagine the awesome sight and sound of these falls in the Wet Season…I bet they are simply amazing.
Barron Falls is reached 4 klms from Kuranda Village and then a 1klm boardwalk through beautiful rain forest. The boardwalk at times is up around the forest canopy and is worth the walk even if you were not to see the falls. There is wheel chair acces all along this walk so as you can imagine it is an easy walk to accomplish by anyone.
This turned out to be a great day with lots seen and enjoyed.
Moving on we left Cairns heading to Babinda and as close to Josephine Falls as we could muster. Josephine Falls is the start of the walk trail up the Eastern side of Bartle Frere.
Arriving at Babinda we decided to stay at the free camping area on the Eastern edge of the town. It is quite a pleasant, if not transient, place for a few days whilst you check out the surrounding areas.
We planned on Thursday being the best forecast weather for the climb and so has a couple of days to kill. One of these days was spent at Josephine Falls.
Josephine Falls are spectacular and can be reached 15 klms South of Babinda. I have already given a writeup on these falls so I won’t blog on about them again. Today instead of going to view the falls we went there to have a swim and a play on the natural rock slide. The slide proved to be a huge hit with the kids who had some great fun swimming and sliding…of course Bushman Bud enjoyed the play time aswell. Just becareful of the rocks and current. The rocks are slippery and you can get carried away on the current if you are not careful…keep an eye on your kids here!
Thursday came around and it was time for Joey Jess to climb Bartle Frere from the Eastern end of the track. This track was the tougher of the two, generally because it climbs up from 100m to 1622m. Joey Jess and Bushman Bud were up at 5:30am and hit the track at 6:30am. The first 3klm to the Eastern Camp took us 1 and 3/4 hours and was tougher going than what we expected. This section of the track (other than been full of leaches) crossed many small creeks and 3 large creeks which took some negotiating with slippery rocks all around. The hardest section of the track being on the approach to the camp when you are following a ridge line.
Arriving at the camp around 8:00am we crossed the biggest of the creek crossings and were on a constant climb upwards to the 7klm mark. The climb is marked every klm and is good when checking your progress. The track is generally steep with a few sections of 30 to 40m of really steep climbing where a fall would see you tumbling for quite some way. The toughest section was between the 4-5 klm mark and a small section near the 6 klm mark.
You finally come out of the rainforest after about 6.5 klm onto an open area. Unfortunately for us despite the weather forecast it was proving to be the worst of the last few days. When we got out of the rainforest it was windy, raining and quite cool…we were thankful for having packed our rain gear.
Arriving at the helicopter pad and emergency hut at the 7klm mark around 11.20am we only had the boulder scramble to reach the summit. There was a party just ahead of us who were already coming back down so we new there was a problem. One of the people climbing had slipped off one of the first boulder and done some nasty damage to there leg. The report was the boulders were extremely slippery and not safe to climb. We thought we would have a look for ourselves so on went. Just before the boulders is a warning sign which states that the boulders should not be attempted on wet days…still you know Bushman Bud…so on we went. When we got to the boulders we were amazed by the enormity of them. Not only were they big but the drop or fall on either side of them was deep. At times a slip from the boulder would see you plummiting into a boulder hole some 4 to 5m down. This would result in serious injury and put you in grave danger. I left Joey Jess at the start of the boulders to scout ahead 100m. Just then the rain intensified and teh wind became stronger. The already slippery boulders were now treachourous and the cloud thick. I had to very carefully negotiate my way back to Jess and in the name of safety called off our summit attempt only 200m from the summit. I really felt disappointed for Joey Jess after pushing herself so hard to get to this point and missing out so close to her goal. Now we had to make plans for another attempt. Had we climbed up te Western Track we would have made it easily and avoided the boulders…what a shame…however prehaps a good lesson learnt in a number of ways for both of us. Sometimes you do pull up just shy of your goals which makes you even more determined to get them.
Time to get down and out of the rain and wind. The first 1 klm down was tough going and the next 3 klms is hard and slow too. After that the track levels out somewhat and you can move quickly again. Amazingly, Jess took the lead after the 3klm to go mark and powered home, the last klm running to the carpark. I cannot speak highly enough of Jessy’s efforts today as only a 7 year old kid, she climbed hard and a few slips and kept going when it was really tough on that mountain today. She refocused at the top still eager to climb the mountain again and achieve her goal. I am so proud of her for everything she achieved today, she is a pocket rocket and machine. Her determination and will power will take her to many high peaks and places in her life and I am just so glad to have shared this experience with her as she challenged herself to the extreme and came out a clear winner…good onya Jess, I am so very proud of you, for everything you achieved today and where that will take you in life. I love you beyond words.
We arrived back at the carpark after 9 and 1/4 hours climbing. I know that the climb can take 12 hours on a good day, so when you put everything we tackled today in perspective…it was just awesome.
Oh, did I mention the leaches…they are shocking on this walk…do yourself a favour, shell out some money for the Bushman Spray…it really works on the leaches and saves you some anguish. The people we saw walking today were blood soaked. Whilst we still had leaches climbing on us constantly during the day, none actually latched on and bit us…I can therefore vouch for this product in a big way.
Joey Jess and Bushman Bud are making another attempt on the mountain on Monday…so stay tuned.
Bushman Bud…Enjoying Australia
good read, post more!