Following a night of steady rain and another hot porridge breakfast, Vilis, Janis, and I broke camp and drove south from Malanda in precipitation that varied from mist to drizzle to heavy rain. The Palmerston Highway eastbound toward Innisfail again carrried us past verdant pastures, sugarcane and banana plantations, and the rainforest and aerial fauna crossings of Wooroonooran National Park. At one of the banana plantations, a worker cut bagged bunches of bananas from the plants with a machete and loaded them onto a wagon pulled by a tractor. The tractor pulled its load to a huge storage shed, in which bunches of green bananas hung from supports. Waste bananas had been tossed into piles out in front of the plantation, and I wondered what kinds of wildlife would take advantage of that bounty of food.

We linked up with the coastal Bruce Highway at Innisfail and followed it south to the turnoff for South Johnstone and the Misty Mountains. Past South Johnstone, with its huge sugarcane processing plant, and Mena Creek, the paved Mena Creek Road became progressively narrower as we headed into the hills. Eventually,  it became no more than a gravel track through lush grazing land and past isolated farmyards. Red cattle with large ears grazed in roadside pastures and wandered along the backcountry road, with two sets of twin calves romping along ahead of our car for a distance.

After a little road confusion, we located the trailhead for the McNamee Creek walk, the easternmost section of the two- to three-day Gorrell Track that follows old logging roads deep into regenerating rainforest. With rain switching on and off like a faucet – downpours interspersed with sunny breaks – we hiked quickly, knowing we had only an hour in and an hour out before driving home to Townsville.

Frequently skidding on the saturated red mud trail imbedded with gravel and stones, we dodged giant fern, wild ginger, and palm leaves arcing over the track, and leaped across narrow tributaries of Mena Creek. We noted the tracks of dingoes, feral pigs, and perhaps a fox in the mud of the trail, and spotted a cassowary scat that, in the heavy rain, resembled a large mass of regurgitated fruit and seeds. Janis found three moulted snakeskins on the trail, caught a glimpse of a black snake tail slithering into trailside vegetation, and pointed out a jungle carpet python coiled on the track. The python, with its abdomen distended from its last meal, had flies buzzing around it and appeared to be distinctly dead.

The species of large golden orb web spider we’d seen at Lake Barrine yesterday was everywhere, its huge webs hung between shrubs or the fronds of ferns or leaves of palms growing in the open beside the trail. Vilis inadvertently pushed through a web with his umbrella, causing the agitated owner of the web to scurry over the umbrella, seeking escape.

A laughing kookaburra  chortled in the distance, its loud “koo-koo-koo-ha-ha-ha-ha” soaring out over the dense, tangled rainforest. Nearby, sulphur-crested cockatoos rent the air with vibrating screams, causing my snake-sensitized nerves to jump repeatedly.

After creeping along the edge of Mena Creek, we hiked through a grove of tall, slim palms with fronds like slivered emeralds. The track then led us away from the creek, up onto a ridge, and down to McNamee Creek, which surprisingly had a concrete ford that was undoubtedly constructed during the heyday of logging in the area. Vilis and I tugged off our sneakers and socks to wade in the shallow, refreshing water flowing over the ford. Upstream, the creek’s grey-green water was all serenity and reflected forest; downstream, it plunged and tumbled over boulders, frothing white against black rock.

Our brief sunny interlude at the ford ended with a downpour that pelted rain onto us for most of the return hike out to the Kia. The palm grove was stunning, its dripping fronds gleaming like liquid emerald. That palm grove was my favourite part of the hike, whereas what Vilis liked best was the fact that the track felt wild. Although short and easy, it had snakes, wild pig and predator tracks, cassowary scat, giant ferns, lush palms, and massive spiders everywhere. Definitely wild.