Day 373 | PKs Jungle Resort, Cape Tribulation: climb every mountain
rest day
Another day off, well, it had been planned back in Cairns: I want to climb Mt Sorrow.
As it has turned out I’ve been meeting people in the last few days, I spent the evening at Wonga Beach with two Swiss gals, Zoe and Sandie. They camped here last night, umm, in their camper van and this morning I asked them what they were doing: Zoe’s off horse riding through the jungle and down along the beach, Sandie’s tromping up Mt Sorrow, leaving in 15 minutes.
Me, I’m here to climb the hill too, leaving, I guess, in 15 minutes.
We were a great team, I’m in full hill climb condition, just engage the diesel engine and power on through, Sandie turned out to be a sport’s student of some type, shall we say, into fitness a bit, the suggested time of “6 to 7 hours” seemed a little heavy on, the fact we were back down again at 12 in about half that, including time at the top contemplating the tremendous view, despite the cloud around and typical tropical humidity which watered down the distant vistas.
It was supposed to be not just “steep”, but “very steep”, and I would concur with that assessment, no doubt about it, if they have a rope through the rainforest for 100 m then it’s there for a reason.
The two gals have been travelling together for two months to date, and they’ve sure packed in a full amount, but I guess they are suffering cabin fever, Sandie kept up discussion for the full 3.5 hours until we parted as I went to look around Cape Tribulation Beach. She confessed to be looking forward to being back in their known world, home surrounds, in a couple of weeks.
Cape Tribulation is as far north as you can get on the sealed road that follows up the east coast, from here the road is gravel and classed as 4WD, OK, the Cooktown inland road is also sealed but for many, most, this is the end of a long trek. Today’s mob were down there a little stunned having reached their objective and disappointed by the tide full out, the wind full on.
For me though, it’s just the beginning of another little adventure.