Oh What a Feeling! Wooroonooran Safaris
Wooroonooran Safaris Canopy Skywalk Tour - 7th. September
If I could remember how to say ‘Wooroonooran’ I’d be recommending their safari tours to all my friends.
Travelling with Wooroonooran safaris on the new MaMu canopy skywalk tour, was a wonderfully enjoyable day. Naturally we all wanted to see the amazing new construction but there were plenty of other interesting stops along the way. Oliver was keen to stress that his tour was taking the shorter Coast road route, saving 120 kms of travelling time for those who don’t like sitting in a bus all day.
Well, we had a plenty of time for a swim at the picturesque Josephine falls and a few brave souls took the plunge and revelled in the water slide. I thought I’d hang on for the sunshine (I hoped) later in the day when we visited Babinda Boulders.
Our next port of call was the Johnson River Crocodile Farm which is now under new management and is increasing the tourism side of its venture. Its many years since I was here last and I really liked the new additions – especially the gorgeous Dingo pups – well, I couldn’t resist a cuddle with those bundles of mischief. There are some impressive salt water crocodiles here now and they obligingly did their trick of trying to take the keepers arm off whilst being fed. Sorry, bad joke. The keepers were very entertaining with their stories of the floods and social life amongst the crocs. They brought forth snakes and lizards and parrots for close inspection or even to hold if it took your fancy. The most impressive thing to someone who thinks they’ve seen everything though, was a huge crocodile ‘hairball’ made from pig hairs and goodness know what else. Honestly, it was the size of a honeydew melon.
Speaking of which - our lunch stop at Roscoe’s Piazza in Innisfail is most definitely worth a mention. It’s a real Italian family venture and the pizza was as you’d expect – thin, crusty and delicious. Roscoes puts on a buffet of Pasta, Pizza, Roast meats, Chicken, Meat loaves (which were very special) Mediterranean veggies, Salads ,a myriad of desserts and much, much more.
Full and contented, we were excited to get to MaMu skywalk to walk some of it off. What a fantastic structure this is. They’ve catered for everyone and the whole skywalk is wheelchair and pram friendly. There are even several routes down to the forest walk (which runs amongst the trees alongside the canopy walk) in case people are tired or suffer with vertigo – as indeed one of our group did. There is also a buggy to transport those who need extra help.
The walkway was excellent, providing birds eye views of the surrounding forest. The cyclone damage is noted in the information placards, as there are some hefty fallen tree trunks around. It’s quite amazing to see some 20metre ‘new growth’. Throughout the tour Oliver, the owner of Wooroonooran Safaris was a fountain of knowledge and made it all especially interesting
The one place that is not suitable for wheelchairs and prams is the Viewing Tower. It climbs through a series of stairways to 37 metres above the forest floor. Yikes, from here you can see to Babinda and beyond. The scary thing though, is that the Tower is not such a fixed structure as the canopy walkway seemed to be. It sways just a little. There was no wind at all on the day of our visit so I did wonder how thrilling it would be on a blustery day. Of course it is designed and built with this flexibility in order to withstand cyclonic winds, but as the brochure notes ’be aware of your response to heights’. As the sky darkened we hastily returned to our vehicle. By the side of the pathway we spotted a pile of cassowary poo, but alas no cassowaries.
At this point the weather decided to live up to its ‘Wet Tropics ‘tag so at Babinda Boulders we had to get out the brollies for our walk. It was interesting to hear the full Aboriginal legend of the Boulders. I seemed to have only heard the condensed version in previous visits. It’s a beautiful spot though and reminds me why I live in this tropical wonderland. The rain stopped long enough for a dip in the surprising warm, shallow pool near the picnic ground and the turtles came for a visit so that really completed my day. Thanks to Oliver and the crew for making it special.
Lesley – The Tour Specialists, Clifton Beach.