So for today's episode...
I planned to spend two nights in Cairns, but it was stiflingly hot and humid (build up to wet season), and I'd got the shopping and washing all done in one day, so I shot through to a national park on the Atherton Tablelands, the mountains inland from Cairns.
As I got near the campsite, there was an intense thunderstorm, but I sheltered under a roof and met a few old friends, not from the Eclipse festival but from another festival down South I attend regularly.
Turns out that stupid pre-registration system is only being introduced, and you
can still just turn up and register on site.
Whatever. A tad over $5 a night.
Here is my small hiking tent, which I use for short term camps or carry-in camps.
This is about 20 metres from the swimming hole, which was this.
Nice clear cool water, about five feet deep, with a gravelly bed. Niiiiice.
I did some hiking, but the mountains around here are a bit hard to photograph. I did a hike up Turtle Head mountain, and the view was like this.
Those clouds spilling over that nearby mountain had me concerned, since the wind was coming from that direction, and there had been an afternoon storm the day before, so I didn't tarry but kept moving to lower ground. I was back at camp when there was some light rain, but that was all.
Somewhere around here I went to another waterfall, where this was the upstream pool:
It was 32 degrees and humid. OF COURSE I swam here.
