Wednesday 2/10/.2002

 

Sylvia wanted to do the walk from Crystal Cascades to Copperlode Dam (or Lake Morris as it is also known).

 

I didn't look at the book which was a bit of a pity, if I had I would have seen it was rated "strenuous" and I might have thought twice. I had "stone-bruised" my foot on the way to Kuranda last weekend and had spent the last couple of days in a bit of discomfit.

 

Our friend Sophie came with us, along with Emma and her friend Julian.

 

We left from Crystal Cascades and immediately started up the roughest track we have yet walked. It was also the darkest as it is in deep rainforest, sadly almost as dry as the other forests were have walked through recently.. You can see from the shot below that for a tropical rainforest, its pretty dry and the plants are suffering

 

 

The "young fit people" quickly got sick of walking at my pace (even slower than usual as I was trying to keep weight off my increasingly sore foot) and trotted off into the distance.  Shortly after I suggested to Sophie and Sylvia that they should go on ahead so as to not have to listen to my swearing.

 

The only point on the entire walk where there is a view is at a FNQEB power pole which marks the point where the power supply to Lake Morris goes underground. The young fit people were just about asleep by the time Sophie and Sylvia with me close behind, arrived.

 

 

 

 

The rest of the walk to Lake Morris as actually bloody hard work from here as it followed the road made for power line access. Therefore it just went straight up and over all the rises rather than the gentler switchbacks you get on trails made for humans instead of machines.

 

Suffice it to say we got to Lake Morris refreshment rooms and cups of tea and sandwiches all round.  Just to rub in the difference in energy levels between mid 40s and early 20s Emma and Julian walked all the way down to the dam itself and went exploring. I used the zoom function on the camera to be with them in spirit.

 

 

After an hour or so we started back down, and entirely uneventful trip other than poor Sophie missing her footing and unfortunately grabbing a "hairy Mary" for support. She must have taken about 200 hairs into her hand and forearm and was in obvious discomfit. I took the top off a bottle of "sting goes" and painted it on, Sophie claimed to feel better, but I think she was just being brave, doubtless she had a few fun filled hours at home later with a bright light, a pair of tweezers and a needle.

 

The shot below was taken before that happened.......

 

 

 

 

And, while we are at it, the inevitable picture of Sylvia looking very "professional" on the trail

 

 

 

And lastly, you can't go into the rainforest without finding the odd buttressed rooted tree. This one wasn't anything special other than the fact it had survived the fall of its near neighbour creating a rare hole in the canopy through which you could see the sky, but Sylvia insisted I photograph it, God alone knows why....

 

 

 

 

This Sunday, the Goldfields walk.....Stay tuned.

 

Click your Browsers Back button or click here to go back