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DELAYED POST – DAY 3

TRACK NOTES
Zoe Bay to Diamantina Creek (Grade: difficult)
Distance: 6.5 km Time: allow about 4 hrs hiking time
Sunken Reef Bay – Sidetrack 60mins rtn (we didn’t do this side-track this time)
Diamantina Creek to Mulligan Falls camp (Grade: difficult)
Distance: 1 km Time: allow about 30 mins hiking time

Thursday 3rd August 2023
Happy birthday to Alice. She is in her happy place for her birthday.
We packed up early, had a cup of tea, a birthday cake on the beach for Alice’s birthday, with a card and a birthday song. We shared our stories with the girls about the night before, as they had hit the sack before the tidal waves came in to camp. And we are on our way for our 3rd day on the trail at 8.20am.

We hiked out of camp on our way to Zoe Falls, when one of the 3 girls we met yesterday from New Zealand stopped us at the far back camp. She asked how we went as they were in one of the beachfront camp sites and they woke to their camp being flooded right through. They had no access to get away, they packed up their gear and hung it on the backpack racks and had to sit it out on the picnic table until the tide changed. They sat there until 1am when the tide had receded before they could move their tent and gear to the back camp. They spent about 5 anxious hours on the table. She asked us to let our ferry man know, so he could let incoming campers know about the dangers. We believe it was a combination of the full moon, big tide, howling wind and swell that caused the extreme conditions.

We then made it to Lower Zoe Falls for our pre-breakfast swim. It was beautiful. An hour later we hiked and climbed to the top of Zoe Falls via the rope, where we enjoyed breakfast with the most spectacular view. Alice’s request for her birthday was to have her tea cup filled by each one of us throughout the day. A very simple present. After breakfast, we had our first swim of many at the Upper Zoe Falls. We had the falls all to ourselves most of the time. Two boys from the U.S. came up later but headed to the lower upper falls, so we still really had it to ourselves.

We decided to have an early lunch before we headed on our way. Unbelievably, we had lovely moments of sunshine to warm us up after our swims. At about 1pm, after a beautiful relaxing morning, we started the hike to our next camp – Mulligan Falls. The hike was up and down, through rainforest, grasslands, grass trees and crossed the creek many, many times. The creek crossings involved strategic rock hopping and was a great challenge in some instances, made trickier by our heavy packs. But it was a fun day.

We arrived at Mulligan Falls to another magnificent example of nature. After setting up camp for the last time, we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and lazing around the falls. Whilst getting dressed in nature’s change-room behind a rock, Jaci noticed a python wrapped around an elevated tree branch. It was the most beautiful creature and we snapped away for ages. We thought it might be a carpet python but later discovered it was an Australian Scrub Python. We then headed back to collect our dinner things, so we could have a dinner birthday party for Alice by the Falls. It was a lovely party, along with a snickers birthday cake and candles. A beautiful end to a special birthday. We had one uninvited guest – a small mouse, we think. At this camp we had white-tailed rats last time but we haven’t seen any this year.

After a lovely dinner we sat chatting and star gazing, with the occasional firefly show and visit from our little friend. We had a wonderful last night on the trail. We headed back to camp, packed away our bags, covered them in garbage bags in case of rain and headed to bed about 8.30pm. Pleasantly exhausted and ready for sleep. One day to go on this adventure and none of us are ready for it to end.