A humid and sticky Saturday morning saw the Townsville Hike and Explore Group travel out of town to hike the Dalrymple Gap Walking Track.
The Dalrymple Gap Walking track is a historical trail located 13Km south of Cardwell. This track follows the route of a road built in the 1860s, that in turn roughly followed the route taken by Aboriginal people across the Cardwell Range. Near the top of Dalrymple Gap, on the coastal side, is an historic brick-lined bridge. The bricks were brought from Scotland and the bridge has an interesting stone-pitched face. Drill holes and grooves in rocks along the edge of the track show where they were split to widen the track. (www.visithinchinbrook.com)
After a couple hours of carpooling and organising the group for this summertime adventure, we gathered at the Northern End of the trailhead.
We were fortunate to have Shane along on this hike and he gladly and openly shared some of his historical knowledge of the area, the trail itself and the significance and importance of this area to the Aboriginal People. We also had Michael, an Ingham based member of our group join us and share some of his knowledge of the area and the local flora and fauna with the group.
We managed to find an old insulator on the side of the trail, presumably from an old telegraph or communication line of a past era.
By the time we made our way to the historic, brick lined bridge the humidity was close to 100% and close to unbearable, but we soldiered on.
We stopped for a break and some photos at the bridge. This architecture tucked away in the rainforest is certainly something special to see. A cool breeze began to blow, the morning showers cleared and from then on, the majority of the remainder of the trail is a slow, moderate decline as it weaves its way through the Girringun National Park.
This trail, as do many in our region, requires maintenance and is partly washed away from the floods in certain areas. We cleared wait a while, barbed wire vine and knee-deep sections of palm fronds as we made our way towards the Southern End of the trail.
We passed a massive fig tree, however the figs were still too green to attempt to eat. Blue and Purple Quandongs were scattered all over sections of the trail and we came across 3 piles of Cassowary Scat, one pile which would have been no more than a day old.
The highlight of the day was a wild pig dashing out of the rainforest and splitting the group as it launched itself between two of our startled group members. One of our members even managed to capture a couple of photos of the animal as it literally flew through the group towards an adjacent creek line.
Water levels were low, however the group still managed a swim before we made our way out into the open country and the end of the adventure.
Rhett and a few of our more adventurous hikers, turned around and walked the trail back, all the way to the starting point, emerging back at the Northern trailhead just before dark. A 20km hiking day!
A massive welcome to the many new faces who joined the group on this adventure and a big thanks to our regulars, who go out of their way to assist and make our new members feel right at home!
Fun, Fitness, Friendship and Community – Join Townsville Hike and Explore on our Next Adventure!
