Lions Park Rest Area, Kairi, QLD

Day 193 – 28^th August 2011

Lions Park Rest Area, Kairi, QLD

Today we had a fall-less day. After a bit of a sleep-in and breakfast we went to the Herberton visitor information centre to get more info on their Great Northern Walking Trails. We opted for the longest trail that took us on a 270m climb via the Ironclad open cut mine (lode tin was discovered in 1880) and St Patrick Hill’s ridge to Stewart Head, offering spectacular views of the surrounding area (9km return - 4h). Back in town we had a coffee at a local café before continuing on to Atherton with a quick stop at the Herberton Historic Village to view some of the old buildings from the outside of the museum as we didn’t want to spend the time and money to go in (it looks quite good so making a note to do this next time we are in town). The lady at Atherton visitor information centre was very helpful by informing us on a free camping spot in Kairi (only listed as a day use rest stop in the camps book), so we decided to go there for the night after some decent grocery shopping (the first big supermarket since Alice Springs) and a quick stop at Halloran’s Hill Lookout. Tonight Nele discovered a tick on her back (she didn’t want to believe it first it was indeed a tick), which Andrew skilfully removed with tweezers. There is always something to watch out for, we’ve had snakes, spiders, crocodiles, mozzies, leeches and now ticks…what a country!

Green parrots

Cockatoos

Kookaburra

Starting the Great Northern Walking Trail 

View of Herberton

Ironclad open cut mine

And the trail goes up and down

Stewart Head in sight

Almost there

Nice views at the top

same

Having lunch

Starting the walk back through the long grass

Another mine left from the good old days

Lizard

Herberton

Herberton

Having a coffee and hot chocolate

Herberton Historic Village

Atherton

Halloran's Hill Lookout

Halloran's Hill Lookout

Scenery long the drive

Sunset

Sunset

Kairi Rest Area

Sunset