This walk finished off with a long beach stroll.
Bramston Beach is a sleepy beach town between Ingham and Cairns up in Far North Queensland, with it being off the Bruce Highway I'd never visited his spot before so a bit of an exploratory walk had some appeal. Arriving in the car park at the low key picnic ground it was close to three o'clock when I set off this afternoon, not ideal for a 15 kilometre walk however with the last half of the walk along the beach I wasn't too worried about walking in the dark. After grabbing my gear I walked back up Bramston Beach Road for a few minutes before following the quiet Sassafras Street north out of town.
I set off from the picnic area in the sleepy coastal town of Bramston Beach.
The local motel was up for sale - looks like it might be a bit of a renovators delight!
Once out of town I started a long road bash along a gravel road, this section of the stroll was a little underwhelming really, a situation not helped by the showers of rain constantly passing through. There were a couple of good things about the road walk though, yes at least it was a quiet road and also the road walk made it easy to keep an eye out for the local wildlife. Now this last point is relevant because I was lucky enough to see a Cassowary and her (his?) chick along here, not something that I come across on every walk that I do. After entering the Russel River National Park the road became more of a 4wd track as it snaked north between the beach and the Russel River.
I was heading to the camping area now.
For the most part the road bash was a little average...
... with one notable exception...
... yes, I saw a Cassowaryđ
At least the road was quiet - I only had two vehicles pass by me along the whole length of the road walk.
It was around 4:30 pm when I reached the end of the road and dropped down onto the beach and after walking a few metres I knew that I'd be in for a solid walk back to the ute. Thankfully the beach sand was fairly firm however at the same time the beach featured a fairly pronounced slope, so I was constantly walking with my ankles cranked over on a fairly extreme angle - lucky I only had 7 kilometres to go! After shuffling my way south past the national park bush campsites I more or less had the coastline to myself, the only signs of humanity were some trawlers off shore.
It wouldn't be a North Queensland Walk without a warning about the Salties.
I gave the Russel River swim a miss this afternoon.
The mountains were cloaked in cloud this afternoon.
Time to turn right and start my long beach walk.
The beach was deserted as far as the eye could see...
... well, except for the Oyster Catchers.
After around two kilometres on the beach walking in my Tevas I decided that bare feet might good for awhile and while it didn't improve the angle of my ankles at least I had no course sand rubbing my feet raw. I had one more thing making this walk a little tougher than normal and that was that I was in Saltwater Crocodile country, and where as normally I'd be walking on the flatter sand right near the water line, I was a bit reluctant to shuffle along too close to the water here in case I got mugged by a Saltie! All in all though my beach walk was pretty good, the rain mostly held off and I was able to enjoy what felt like a remote section of the coast whilst watching the sun go down. It was around 6:30 pm when I shuffled the last few metres back to the ute tonight and it was completely dark and raining now, still I was pretty happy with life after checking out another interesting stroll.
Beach combing my way back to Bramston Beach.
That'd be where the globe came from.
If anyone is looking for a bit of solitude this could be the walk for you...
... yep, it was just me and the Green Tree Frogs...and the Cassowary!
This would be interesting on a high tide.
The Dirt.
According to my GPS I walked 15 kilometres and climbed 24 metres this easy - medium grade stroll. This walk has a few things that need to be considered though, the first issue is that it's a fairly long walk in the tropical heat with no access to more water, the road is somewhat shaded however the beach is obviously not. The second issue to consider is that this is in Saltwater Crocodile Country so you need to be weary around water. The third issue is the beach itself, the sand has a pronounced slope on it which can be a little hard on ankles and the beach itself looks like it wouldn't be walkable at high tide as the water would be lapping at the trees - there are also two creeks to cross which would be chest height at high tide (although my visit was at the end of the wet season so the creeks might not be such an issue in the dry?). I used my Alltrails App and my GPS topos this afternoon - as far as I know this walk hasn't been published online or in print.
Relevant Posts.
Apart from the setting sun I was also racing the weather now.
I never got sick of the checking out the Paperbarks up here - we don't get them anywhere near this size down south.
I was trying to keep a bit of distance between me and the water.
I reckon those fishing trawlers might be doing it a bit tough out there!
And that was it for the photos today. I arrived back at the ute in the dark just as the rain hit me again.
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