Barron Gorge National Park - Douglas Track

Yesterday I ventured off to the Barron Gorge National Park. The Park starts on the northern outskirts of Cairns and covers an area that goes all the way to Kuranda and the Tablelands. I live on the far south side of Cairns so just getting to the Park was an epic journey. I didn't really know too much about the track that starts at the Park, I just knew there was one. So when my mate and I arrived and had a look at the information board we realised there is a number of tracks and trailheads you can take. The weather was pretty miserable with drizzling rain and storm clouds threatening in every direction so we decided to take the shorter of the three major tracks - plus it was late when we finally got started. The track we took is called the 'Douglas Track' and this track takes you from the bottom of the Barron Gorge National Park all the way to Speewah on the Tablelands. The start of the track is up through dense rainforest until you finally come out onto the actual Kuranda Scenic Railway Track - you have to walk along the track for about 50metres (dangerous if you ask me) and then start another upward track through a grassy trail. Once you reach the top of the grass trail which I think is called'Red Bluff' - you have great views . The track then branches off from where you can either take the McDonald Track which ends up at Kuranda or continue with the Douglas track which takes you to 'Glacier Rock' and Speewah. It was already 3-30pm by the time we reached the top of Red Bluff so we decided we would just go to Glacier Rock and save the Speewah hike for another time. We ran up to Glacier Rock (steep grass track) in good time and took a 15min break - just as we were leaving it started raining. We ran all the way back down to the base in about 30mins. The knees and ankles are feeling it today and I don't know how on earth I didn't go arse up as it was so slippery!

The top of Glacier Rock.

Looking down onto the Barron River from Red Bluff.

The Kuranda Railway Line. You have to walk along this for 50metres and then go up that hill on the right - very steep to start with but then flattens out and has a good track.

Looking onto Mt Whitfield from Red Bluff.

The Barron River from the start of the Barron River National Park.


- More pics taken from Glacier Rock below.

Pics - Barron Gorge National Park - Douglas Track

These photos are taken from the top of 'Glacier Rock'

Thats Mt Whitfield (Red & Blue Arrow Tracks) on the right of the photo and the Barron River in the middle right.

The Douglas Track signpost for Glacier Rock and Speewah. If you keep going straight you take the McDonald Track which takes you to Kuranda (thats for next week).

Mt Whitfield to the left of the photo and Cairns City in the middle.

I had to resize most of these photos but if you click on this one you should be able to see 'Green Island' in the middle. Even though it was an overcast day you could see right out to Green Island.

Mt Whitfield (home of Red & Blue Arrow) with Cairns City to right, airport to the top left and the outer Cairns suburbs to the bottom left.

Red Arrow/Blue Arrow

This weekend I'm giving the Pyramid a rest but I've got a couple of other tracks planned. Today I did the Red Arrow and Blue Arrow tracks. These are pretty popular with alot of the locals and they're very handy as they are just on the edge of Cairns city. The red arrow circuit is the shorter of the two and isn't too challenging as its a gentle rise and the majority of the path is concrete and has steps. Blue arrow on the other hand is tough as its run through the rainforest and its up and down through rocks and tree roots - you really need to watch your footing as its pretty easy to end up flat on your face or backside. Blue arrow was particularly difficult today as we've had a fair bit of rain and the track was very muddy and slippery and the moss covered rocks were also greasy. Saw a fair bit of wildlife along the two tracks - a heap of scrub turkeys, goannas and two wild pigs. The humidity was sickening and I didn't take near as much water as I should have. I took 1.25 litres thinking this would be enough - I'd finished that by half way. There are no taps anywhere along the tracks so I just had to suffer the second half without water. All up the two circuits took 1hr 15mins.

Looking out to Trinity Inlet from the lookout at top of the Blue Arrow circuit.

The Cairns Airport from the lookout at the top of the Red Arrow Circuit. Notice I got the plane landing as well?

The rainforest you go through for the Blue Arrow circuit. Cyclone Larry must have really tore up the circuit as there is downed trees everywhere.

Looking out to the Northern Beaches from the top of the Blue Arrow circuit.

Cairns City from the top of the Red Arrow circuit.

Week In Review

I pulled up pretty well on Sunday from the Pyramid - so much so that I just did an easy 30min run on Sunday. Monday was a different story. I'm not sure why it took 48hrs to kick in but I was pretty sore and sorry. I was still a bit ginger on Tuesday but I did another easy 30min run and by the end of it was feeling pretty good and had just about run all the stiffness out.

After work on Wednesday I did an easy 40min run and same story on Thursday but increased the speed. I decided during the week with my mate that we would do the Pyramid again this weekend so that ruled out a run yesterday. We did the same thing as last time and set out at 2pm today, but this time we really went hard at it. All up we only had 3 drink breaks up to the top and did it in 1hr 15mins which isn't too shabby. Thankfully it wasnt as hot as last week but it was still pretty humid. We took a 30minute break at the top and then ran all the way down in about 45mins. Funny thing happened while we were running down - passed two guys coming up who were wearing 6 Foot Singlets - no cool running gear however.

Not a bad training week really. I can feel myself getting a little fitter and the 40min run on Thursday was done at 5min/k pace which is pretty encouraging. I'm going to keep doing the Pyramid each weekend until I'm out of Cairns which could be soon. I have a fairly promising job prospect thats a definite possibility - should know more by the end of next week.

More Pics From The Pyramid

From the top, looking out over Gordonvale and Edmonton.

From the top - the small hill you can see in middle of the photo is 'Green Hill'. Each year at Easter there is a church procession done up the hill recreating the stations of the cross.

Taken from 1/4 of the way up - looking over Gordonvale.

Taken from the top -the flat mountain range you're looking across at is the Atherton Tablelands and below it is the Mulgrave Valley.

Taken from about 1/2 way up - thats Cairns and Trinity Inlet you can see in the background.

The long, steep walk up.

Taken from 1/4 of the way up overlooking the Gordonvale Cane Fields.

Mountain Climbing

Thats 'The Pyramid'. Its about 25kms south of Cairns on the outskirts of a small sugar town called Gordonvale. Its 922metres tall and I read somewhere once that its the tallest free standing mountain in the southern hemisphere (dunno if thats true or not). When I was younger and lived in the area I climbed it quite a few times but never took a camera to take some photos of the views you get from the mountain - this time I did. That pic above however I didn't take but I wanted to show the mountain in all its glory. Its a tough climb as its very steep in some spots and its hard go get good footing on some of the rock faces. I can't imagine how people run up and down! My mate and I started yesterday (Saturday) at about 2pm and it was still very hot and humid and both took 4 litres of water each.

That pic above is the view from about 1/4 of the way up and is looking out towards Cairns. If you look carefully you can see Cairns in the very centre of the photo. The houses on the bottom left is the township of Gordonvale. We got to this point at about 2-30pm and had already gone through about 1 litre of water and were absolutely drenched from sweat. My mate who was starting to struggle said 'keep going - I wont get lost. I'll just keep following your trail of sweat'.

That pic shows some of the rock faces you have to scale to climb the mountain. You can't really get a sense of how steep that one is but believe me it was tough - especially if your shoes don't have much grip.

That pic is from the very top and is looking south out onto the Great Diving Range. It was pretty scary taking that photo because I was standing right on the edge of a rocky ledge and its gets very blowy at the top. We got to the top at about 4-15pm and had a 30min break before we came back down. The views you get from the top are amazing. It was a bit cloudy yesterday which is unfortunate because when its a clear day you can almost see forever. There was times that I had to wait 5/10mins because a cloud would pass and I literally couldn't see anything.

This photo is the same as the second but taken from the very top. Its a bit annoying trying to take pics from the top because those trees get in the way. They need a tree lopper to come and cut them down! I've got a heap more photos which I will post in the next few days. For the record we got back to the car at exactly 6-00pm. So exluding our 30min break the whole exercise took 3hrs 30mins - the annual Pyramid Race (up and down with a 4km out and back run to the start line) is done in 1hr 20mins.

Hard Going

I'm proud of myself at the moment. I started getting back into the swing of things last Wednesday and apart from having Saturday off I've managed to run each day - nothing exciting just 30minute sessions which are pretty testy for me at this stage. The heat and humidity are energy sapping. I start my runs off feeling pretty good but after 10 minutes I'm ready to pull the plug. I keep telling myself this is because of the heat and humidity but in actual fact its probably because I'm so unfit. Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll see a drastic improvement in my fitness levels.

I've been scouring the jobs in Brissy the last week or so and I've put in a few applications - with a bit of luck it will be sooner rather then later that I get to move. Unfortunately I've got my mind so set on leaving Cairns that I'm at the stage where I just want out of here - not a good situation to be in because it doesn't make you the nicest person to be around at the best of times.

Anyway, its good to be running again. I feel better in the mind for it and I'm praying that physically I will be better for it soon as well.

Back To The Land Of Blogging

I can't believe the last time I blogged was early September! I'm not sure why I stopped blogging because I didn't stop running until mid October! Then ufortunately, I became a sloth and did absolutely no running until yesterday. I'm not exactly sure why I stopped but I think it had to do with a combination of reasons - the awful heat and humidity, a big workload at work that was leaving me mentally and physically drained and my treadmill was still on the blink.

I had one of these 3mth breaks mid way through last year and was able to get back to good times and fitness levels pretty quickly - I don't think that will be the case this time. I've put on a few kilos and am not feeling the slightest bit athletic. I'm struggling with motivation something shocking as well - example: my treamill was fixed in mid December (long story why it took that long but mainly my fault as I was using it as an excuse not to run) and I told myself I would start the next day after it was fixed, that next day became after Xmas, after Xmas became after New Years and even then it took me 2 days to finally bite the bullet and do something.

So yesterday I told myself I would run for 25mins - it was a struggle and I managed 4.67kms. Today I ran 30mins and managed 5.7kms. As you can imagine the heat and humidity here is sickening, so much so that I'm seriously looking at getting the hell out of here and relocating back down south! I've made up my mind about it so its only a matter of WHEN. It doesn't help when all my friends from Brisvegas keep telling me how its been like winter there recently!

Anyway, thats enough of me sounding like a petulant little kid. Its nice to be blogging again and reading how everyone is going! Hope everyone had a Merry Xmas and has a happy and healthy 2oo7.