Ingham

Ingham is only about 100 kilometres south of Tully, and is surrounded by sugar cane fields. There are several national parks in the area, and we had planned to do quite a bit of walking in the week we spent here. First port of call was Wallaman Falls in Girrungun National Park. At 268 metres, Wallaman Falls is the largest, permanent single drop falls in Australia. The 50 km drive up the mountain to the falls was very scenic, and the falls lookout suitably spectacular. Unfortunately most of the walks we had planned to do in the national park were still closed due to damage from Cyclone Yasi earlier this year, although we had mixed feelings about being unable to do the walk to the bottom of the falls, it looked like it would be awfully hard work to get back up again!

The day after our trip out to Wallaman Falls a rain belt arrived. Ingham has been at the very southern edge of the rain, with showers and drizzle for the last 4 days, compared to almost half a metre of rain (451 mm) at the last place we stayed, Tully, only a little further north. No wonder they proudly display a golden gumboot! While we escaped any flooding, the rain has been enough to keep us confined to the van most of the time. We did do a trip to the Paluma National Park, in the hope that as it was a little further south it may have escaped the rain, but the constant drizzle prevented us doing much exploring, which was a pity as it is almost the only national park we have come across on the east coast where all the walking tracks are actually open.

Another day out we had planned while at Ingham was a boat trip in the Hinchinbrook Channel, between the mainland and Hinchinbrook Island. Once again the weather put paid to that idea, as you can see in the photo at left we've had not just rain but wind as well, certainly not suitable boating weather. It seems that most of the delights of the region around Ingham will have to wait until we visit again some time in the future.