3 Great Walks

Beach - Bay - Rock - The 3 walks – Approx 5 hrs - Depart Cardwell

We call this the Mini Thorsborne Trail and it’s one of our favourite historical, fauna and flora walks.

Whether it’s from lack of time, age, fitness, injury etc, we can’t all experience the total Thorsborne Trail. By doing the Mini Thorsborne Trail, we can still experience and embrace its natural beauty and a feel of ownership of the Island.

Beach

Departing Cardwell, we head over to the most North Eastern tip of Hinchinbrook Island, Cape Richards and disembark at the sandy beach at Macushla Cove, which overlooks Gould and Brooke Islands.

This the start of our first and longest walk. A 1 hour round trip to North Shepard Bay, where we cross the over island to the beach and walk up to Cape Sandwich. It’s an easy walk and you can enjoy amazing scenery with great diversity in flora. You’ll see mangrove forests, Melaleuca, Pandanus, Comesperma, Blue Banksia and Sundew. Keeps.

In fauna, Orange Footed Scrub Hens nest in the area and Imperial Pigeons, Honey Eaters, Stone Curlews, Rainforest Kingfishers and Mahogany Gliders frequent the canopy. There’s a chance you’ll also see the island’s marsupials, Melomys, Bandicoots and Agile Wallabies.

Rock

 Once we’re reloaded it’s a 15 min boat ride over to Coral creek to 89m Rock. It looks daunting with its sheer cliff face and ledges, but our guide has a sneaky way around the back so it’s more of a scramble, than a climb or basic walk. Once at the peak of the rock, you’ll see amazing 360' views of Missionary Bay’s creek system and over to Ramsay Bay, Nina Peak, without the crazy climb.

Bay

Upon return to the boat, we enjoy another 20 min boat trip to our next destination, Creek 7 to the Ramsay Bay boardwalk, the access to our last walk over to Ramsay Bay. This is especially exciting, as this is the start of the world famous Thorsborne Trai. We follow the boardwalk for about 200m through the mangroves and lowlands to the sand dunes and the beach at Ramsay Bay. We then walk the beautiful beach to the rocks near the base of Nina Peak, with The Thumb and Mt Bowen (1121m) shadowing you. It is an amazing mountain scape and you realise how untouched and pristine, Hinchinbrook Island is.

We then walk inland through the rainforest and dappled light to the little creek at Black Sand Beach, which is one of the kayak beach camping sites. We relax under Pandanus Palms, or explore the beach. We then walk back to the boat at Creek 7 and return to Cardwell. You will have experienced one of the 8th wonders of the world, and a true wonder of nature.