Paluma retreat
We headed up to Paluma (the rainforest to the North of Townsville) with three friends. The purpose of the trip was simple; stress relief.
We left in the afternoon, after everyone had time to sleep in, go to the markets and have a bite to eat. The first stop was Frosty Mango. It’s a road-side cafe in the middle of nowhere. They make their own ice cream. We ate it. It was yummy.
Next stop was the very busy Crystal Creek (it is inviting as it sounds too). However, there were many Bogans around, drinking cans of Bundy and Rum and XXXX, and telling the little ‘bliters’ to not ’slide down that rock’ etc… etc…
Asle and I began to explore the pools upstream, diving from one to the other doing inpersonations of firstly Gollum from LOTR and then eels migrating up between the rocks. The water was very clear and a nice refreshing temperature that wasn’t too cold. Perfect.
After a series of small pools, intersected with mini waterfalls, we found the best pool of the lot. It was a deep (about 3m!), clear pool with a cascade of a small waterfall rolling into its upper end. We went back and collected the girls and the lunch (a left-over noodle salad from the previous night’s steamboat) and did a little hike up the bank to the spot.
We gave each other titles on the walk up. I was the bushwalking guide (which meant that I said ‘crikey!’ a lot), Zoe was the chef, Alse was the pack-horse, Caroline was the information consultant (or something like that) and Kiki was the spider wrangler (that was because a massive freaking spider landed on her back while she was negotiating the most precipitous slope of all. I yelled ‘crikey!’ and flicked it off with a stick.
Later we tried to take a self-timer group photo of all of us jumping backwards into the pool, but we kept mis-timing it and getting either a photo of 5 expectant people all crouched and anxious, or 4 splashes and the head of the first person to surface after their jump. I ended up taking a photo of the other four jumping.
As we were leaving we found that the bogans, some of whom were still there, had left behind a torn, deflated raft and a bunch of cans. Zoe accosted them, asking if they were planning on removing their waste. They said it wasn’t theirs so we took it with us. We were all very mad at the ignorant humans doing stupid human things like not thinking! Zoe was particularly fiesty; it looked like whe was going to bit one of them. She didn’t though; maybe she doesn’t like the taste of rum. Who knows?
Anyway, after we had sufficiently shamed them, with dirty looks and exasperated sighs, we picked up all their rubbish and took it with us (and our upturned noses). In the carpark I noticed that the two dopey-looking guys had cans of drink of the same brands as the rubbish. We might have made a difference, but as Asle suggested, there are so many bogans that drink that shite that they’re hard to tell apart (unless you take a close look at the mullet or rats-tail).
We were all very tired on the way home. The girls all went to sleep in the back and Asle and I talked about motorcycles and fishing and so on…
All in all a well needed relaxing day. We decided to do things like that more often (more adventures to get us out of Towns Angeles).
On Friday we’re planning a day of relaxation including a visit from a local massuse. There will be aromatherapy and all. Sweet…
Oh yeah, it’s been freaking hot too.