That’s a kind of hike you are happy to do only one time. Piet can tell you because for him, it was the second time! Although i got use to hike a lot in the Basque Country, this one is not for youngsters!
Sunday afternoon, we took the bus 150E towards Gordonvale. 50 minutes later, we were facing the mountain: Walsh’s Pyramid, the highest freestanding pyramid in the world with 922 meters height!
Inside the bus, when we speak about our project to see the sunset right at the top of the Whalsh’s Pyramid, a man tells us we are crazy: » you will come back at night, « it is dangerous », or « you need 5 hours, at least »… blablabla, we are young and crazy people, everything will be all right.
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When we are facing the trail, the melody has changed: it rises steeply up to the top! After each footstep forward, we ascend between 20 and 50 cm. Admittedly the landscape is wonderful, but it’s hard to keep your head up to enjoy it. One hour later, a landmark indicates that we did half way. We just wanted to cry. ONLY HALF WAY!!!! Anyway we don’t have any other choice: we want to see the Sunset so we have to keep going.
Hopefully this landmark wasn’t really precise because we reached the top 40 minutes later. Kaleigh greets the mountain by a nice “fuck you the mountain, I won it! ”. For sure she is happy that we have reached the peak!
Because the landscape is amazing, we have to take “a few” pictures. When the sun started to diffuse its best colours, we took an ultimate shot, finished our beers, packed all our stuff and start to go down the trail… by running and yelling like monkeys! That was really funny. Therefore after 20 minutes, our legs were burning. We walk fast because we have to be quick to don’t miss the bus! I equip my two friends with a spot light and I walk ahead in the dark. Going down the mountain was faster but harder than going up. My legs are shaking. I have to stay focused on my way.
Once we are at the bottom of the Walsh’s Pyramid, we have just 20 minutes to catch the bus! That’s exactly the time we need; we can’t dawdle! One, two, one, two, the rhythm is intense but if we miss the bus, we will have to wait one more hour before the next one.
Like Cape Tribulation when we brought the car back, we had a perfect timing. We arrived at the bus stop…with the bus. We are eased. It took us 1h47 to climb the Walsh’s Pyramid and 1h17 to go down. Back in Cairns, Piet and I went to the Pier Bar and Grill to have a $5 pizza while Kaleigh went to Mc Donald’s to order a Coca-Cola before to work on her Ipad at the hostel.
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The craziest thing about the Walsh’s Pyramid is that it’s a race which takes place the second weekend of August each year: a 12 km loop from Gordonvale to the peak and return. The day before the trip when I asked to a bus driver the road to Gordonvale, he told to Peit and I he did it in 1h47 to finish 22nd for 80 competitors. Respect.
