George and I decided to have a little look at Lake Placid and continue up the road to the Baron Powerstation and then around to check out the Baron Falls from Kuranda.
We headed out after our Sunday morning walk along the esplanade, expecting to do a little trek from the powerstation along a track beside the river.
The sun was shining and it was a lovely day for a drive,
So off we went to Lake Placid, it was so much cooler down there in all the trees, there was an old run down restaurant/function centre that looks over the lake...looks like it would have been great when it was operating and there we old changerooms and picnic areas, and the reminents of what looked like a diving board into the lake...now all that is left is a few open BBQ pits, chairs and a WARNING CROCODILES INHABIT THIS AREA sign... Bugger!
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| George bet me that he could find a path of dry rocks to the other side, over to the island...first rock he stood on was loose and he nearly fell, second one tipped over but he remained dry...did he make it?? |
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| Yep! But did he make it back?? Only JUST! It has been quite dry here and I think this would usually be underwater at this time of year |
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| View of the lake from the BBQ Area |
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| Whats he pointing at? all the way up there? |
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| This sign! |
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| There were heaps of ducks and animals around, so Im sure that crocs would have eaten them and we could have gone for a swim! George and I think that these poles strung across the river in this section are early flood/water level guages? |
We started off down a track that said it went along the river to the powerstation, which was not where we were expecting it to start, we headed along the track which was getting pretty overgrown and tight until we werent sure which direction to take and thought we would go back and head to the powerstation.
On our way back we had some mountain bikers ride past us, so the track must go somewhere to something...maybe its just for bikes??
So we got back into the car and headed towards the powerstation, we drove up a steep winding road, along past all the houses with lovely views and then the road stated following the river which we followed for a while and finally we got to a roadworks sign...NO FURTHER ACCESS TO THE POWERSTATION - ROAD UNDER REPAIR...
We had seen a little track that went off towards the river a little way back so we headed back for that and parked the car on the side of the road.
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| Down we went...down, down, down...the steps were so small you couldnt fit a whole foot on them |
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| then we found a swing! or a seat? George wanted me to try the one above my head too...I dont think so! |
The track then opened out into the river bed which as the water level was so low was just a big boulder field with little rock pools, the forest litterally comes right down to the waters edge!
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| Just little trickles here and there of the river making its way down |
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| We found a lovely little pool, perfect for a swim, clear enough to see there were no crocs but then it started to rain a little and I had visions of being that girl on the signs as we walked in.. 1min of rain low river, 3mins later flash flood and the stick figure girl gets washed away... I took lots of photos of this watering hole to show the school of large fish that was living in there but none of them worked out...next time |
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| As we made our way back to the track, I found several rock pools FILLED with tadpoles... |
When I got home I googled the tadpoles to see what they were...Unfortuneatly they were all CANE TOADS! Gross and to think I spent ages catching one so I could have a good look at it! And there were so so many!
Back into the car we went and back tracked down the mountain and back around to Kuranda to check out the Baron Falls, we werent expecting too much water as there hasnt been much rain but its still an impressive gouge in the landscape. Last time we were here we were on the scenic train from Kuranda so it was nice to take our time and take the crisscrossed boardwalks down to the viewing platform.
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| nom nom nom |
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| view back towards some of the boardwalk bridges |
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| not much water, just a trickle |
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| A tree being slowly wrapped up and stangled by a fig |
We headed to a lookout further down the road which had a great view back towards Cairns and over the river/lake we had just been walking along.
Well thats it for our adventure for the day. We are hoping to do some geocaching soon, hopefully it will be a good way to find some fun spots around the area.
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