As they passed the white painted Catholic Church on the next corner Peter glanced in through the doors, getting a glimpse of the altar and stained glass windows at the far end.
Knights of the Holy Grail eh? I never knew the Catholics had such a thing, he thought.
He admitted to himself that he knew very little about Catholicism or the organization of the Roman Catholic Church. His grandparents had fled from Russia to escape the Communists so technically he was Russian Orthodox by religion. As these were very thin on the ground in North Queensland his mother had brought him up as an Anglican and he presumed all churches were more or less the same. Now he wasn’t quite so sure.
On the left the main railway line curved away out onto a long concrete bridge which took it across the Mulgrave. The tramline continued straight on. Through the gap in the trees made by the railway they were given a very clear view of the entire Pyramid. Peter couldn’t help glancing continually at it, remembering and wondering.
This led to more gloomy thoughts; and then to sinister ones. Is anyone watching us as we walk along this quiet street? Are we really safe? he worried.
He tried to shrug this off, to concentrate on the beauty of the scene, and the pleasure of being with his friends; on Joy, who was walking beside him.
Their route led them to where the tramline went into a cutting which took it under the highway at the northern end of the high level road bridge. As they walked under the highway bridge Peter looked both ways. The tops of cars and trucks could just be glimpsed as they rushed past above them. The picnic area and river bank were clearly visible. Peter could not help remembering the shocking scene they had witnessed, and wondering if the police had removed the body.
Stephen was obviously thinking along the same lines as he commented: “I wonder if the cops have caught those Devil Worshippers yet?”
“Fair go! Give them time,” Graham replied.
“Don’t talk about it please,” Joy called. “I want to forget about them and enjoy the hike.”
That had the desired effect. Peter agreed with her and began to ask Joy if she knew much about the sugar industry. Because she came from Townsville he suspected she did not see its day to day operations in quite the same way as the people from Cairns did. In this he was correct and it provided a topic which carried them through a long cutting, across a small bridge and on along beside a cane field.
They came out onto a long straight which had a newly ploughed field on the left and tall sugar cane on the right. Ahead and to the left spread a magnificent panorama of the Mulgrave Valley and the mountains. Dominating it all on their left was the Pyramid.
In spite of their resolves Megan pointed to it. “It doesn’t look all that big from here.”
“No it doesn’t,” Graham agreed.
They all looked at the mountain as they trudged along. Peter wondered if the police had removed the bodies from the top and decided that was unlikely. He peered up but could not see the sacrificial rock. It was just out of sight at the rear.
Gwen looked and frowned. “That is the ridge we went up isn’t it?” she asked, pointing to the long ridge which led down to the left side of the mountain.
“Yes it is. Just one long false crest,” Graham commented.
Joy pointed to the next mountain. “What is the name of that mountain? It looks very rough,” she asked. Peter suspected she really wanted to change the subject. To help her he took out his map and checked.
“Part of the Bellenden Ker Range. It runs south for about thirty kilometres to near Babinda.”
Stephen called from behind. “That’s where we are ending up, I’ll bet,” he said.
Discussion on that kept them going for some time. Graham was the real dissenter. “Knowing how often Capt Conkey walks over these mountains I wouldn’t bet on it. We could just as easily go north west and end up on Lambs Head.”
“Not again!” Peter cried. “Remember last time, when Willy’s airship got blown away?”
For the next twenty minutes they recounted another adventure two years before. This helped to keep everyone’s thoughts off the Pyramid till it began to fall behind their left shoulders.
The tramline curved left and crossed a bridge. This was about fifty metres long and at least ten metres above the water. It was merely the sleepers and rails laid on solid beams set on timber pilings. There were no walkways or railings of any kind. Graham just wandered onto it without further thought, followed by Stephen, Gwen and Peter. Only when he was half way across did Peter glance back and realize that both Megan and Joy were going very slowly. Megan appeared to be almost edging from one sleeper to the next and she looked quite unsteady.
“You OK Meg?” he asked.
Megan bit her lip and murmured yes but it was obvious she was scared and that she was having vertigo and balance problems. Peter looked down and saw that the water in the creek was probably over her head and contained several snags.
If she falls in there she could hurt herself or drown, he realized.
He said: “Give me your pack. That will help you keep your balance.”
Megan shook her head and kept on moving, one slow step at a time. Joy followed her, looking anxious.
Stephen looked back from the far bank and called: “Hurry up you lot. A train might come along.”
Thanks Steve! Peter thought. That’s all we need- make her panic and lose her balance. He reached out as Megan arrived and took hold of her webbing and began to walk beside her.
Megan shook her head. “It’s alright. I can manage,” she said. So Peter let go but kept his hand close, ready to grab.
On the other bank the line curved right through tall sugar cane which grew close on both sides. Another long straight opened up ahead. They walked on a dirt vehicle track beside the line.
“Isn’t it hot!” Gwen commented, wiping perspiration from her face.
Graham looked back and nodded. “Certainly is. This is supposed to be winter but it’s like a summer day,” he agreed.
“It is very pretty,” Joy added. “Much nicer than I thought it would be.”
“It gets even better a bit further along,” Peter assured her. “Where those hills close in. The railway runs beside the river and it is beautiful.” Peter had walked along the tramway twice before, once with the Scouts and once with cadets on a Senior Exercise and he wasn’t all that interested in this stretch.
They came to an area where the field on the left had recently been harvested. As they went up over small rise Stephen pointed. “There is a man in black running this way.”
Peter felt a sharp spasm of fear. Coming towards them, about a hundred metres away, was a running man, and he was dressed in black. However a second look showed that he wore black silk running shorts and a black T-shirt.
“Only a jogger,” Graham said.
But was he? Peter eyed the man anxiously as he drew rapidly closer. He appeared to be middle-aged and was clearly unarmed. The man barely glanced at them as he puffed past. Peter kept looking back to watch and saw that the man had turned off and was running along the edge of the cleared field. Just a health fanatic, he decided.
Two hundred metres on they came to a long siding surrounded by tall cane. By common consent they stopped to allow people to go to the toilet and to have a drink. Ten minutes later they resumed walking. No sooner had they started than a motor bike came down a side road from the direction of the highway and turned onto the vehicle track towards them. To their consternation the rider was all dressed in black.
The motorcyclist roared towards them so fast they had no chance to hide, or even to concert a plan. As he drew closer Peter observed that the rider wore no helmet and appeared to be about twenty, with long blond hair which streamed behind in the wind. He wore a black leather jacket, jeans and black boots. To Peter’s enormous relief the youth raced past and vanished in the direction of Gordonvale.
“Just a bikie,” Graham observed.
“Or a Devil Worshipper Dispatch Rider,” Stephen adde
d.
“Shut up about the Devil Worshippers!” Joy snapped angrily.
The march was resumed. The tramline curved left again and they were presented with another clear view of the side and back of the Pyramid, still only two kilometres away on their left. This time Peter could pick out the sacrificial rock and he shuddered at the sight. With a conscious effort he looked away.
The tramline crossed another small bridge but the cadets were able to walk through the bed of the shallow, sandy creek it spanned.
Megan waved her arms around. “This is just like home.”
“Not like Townsville,” Joy added. “This is unbelievably green!”
Peter had not noticed, but now that he looked he saw that she was right. In every direction was a different shade of green. Most vivid were the leaves of the sugar cane but all manner of weeds, grasses and tropical trees added to the beauty of the picture.
“We don’t really notice,” he explained. “When you live in a place all the time you take it for granted.”
“I think it is so green because we had a fair bit of rain last week,” Graham put in.
“We know about rain in the Mulgrave valley,” Stephen added.
Peter and Graham both burst into laughter. Joy asked: “How is that? What is so funny?”
“We went looking for an old gold mine up in the headwaters a few years ago,” Graham explained. “My sister Kylie got a bee in her bonnet about it from an old diary left by our Grandad when he died.”
“Did you find it?” Megan asked.
Graham nodded. “Yes, and we nearly got drowned in a flood,” he replied. For the next ten minutes he recounted the story. By then they were on another long straight and the hills were closing in on their right. They passed another side road and a new tram siding.
“How far have we come?” Joy asked when they stopped for a minute to have a drink.
Peter grinned at her. “Not as far as you think,” he replied. He looked at his map and quickly measured the distance. “I’d say about four kilometres.”
“Is that all!” Joy cried. “It feels like ten.”
“We’ve only been walking for a bit over an hour,” Graham pointed out.
Gwen checked her watch. “It is nearly twelve. Why don’t we stop for lunch?”
“Not here. I know the best place. It is a couple of ‘K’s yet,” Graham replied.
The march was resumed. The line curved left around the bottom of a grassy headland, across another small creek, then right again to aim directly up the centre of the valley to where the ridges on the right ran down to the dark line of trees which marked the river bank. They came closer and closer to these until they were walking right beside them.
“I can see water,” Joy said, pointing down through the trees. “Will we stop just along here?”
“Not yet. There is a really good view just around the next bend,” Graham said.
They walked on, waving to a group of canoeists who called and waved from the river. Graham pointed to them. “This is the way we went on our nine day senior field exercise two years ago,” he said.
“The one where we had the navy cadets with us in their canoes,” Peter added. “That was a great exercise!”
“It was, and it was good the way Navy Cadets were included,” Graham answered.
Stephen chuckled. “You only think that because you had the ‘hots’ for Tina Babcock,” he teased.
“Humpff! Did not,” Graham replied, going red. “It was a good story line.”
“What was it?” Megan asked.
“Major Wickham said we were in North America back in 1759 when the British were fighting the French. The Navy Cadets had to move a cannon up to Lake Tinaroo to blow down a new French Fort,” Peter explained.
“A cannon?” Megan queried.
“Only a wooden pretend one, but it had lots of bits and was awkward to move. They had to make rafts with canoes and drag the thing,” Peter added.
Graham nodded enthusiastically. “There were lots of leadership opportunities and we did a lot of battling with cadets dressed up to be the French and the Indians. It was great fun,” he said.
“Why isn’t there one this year,” Megan queried.
Joy answered. “Our OC, Major Wickham, organizes them and he has been looking after his elderly mother and hasn’t had time this year.”
Peter nodded. “And Capt Conkey has had family issues as well. This hike is all he could organize.”
The friends walked on, discussing the famous ‘Senior Exes’ run by 130ACU over the years. The tramline ran into a deep bench cut with a steep drop into the river on their left and a vertical face on their right. The sound of vehicles indicated they were just below the highway.
As Graham had promised the view around the next bend was superb; a delightful stretch of river: blue water, blue skies and lush green trees.
“Oh that is lovely!” Joy cried.
“We should have gone canoeing,” Stephen said.
“I thought you’d gone off canoes,” Graham chided. That led to more laughter and the story of another adventure, this time near Innisfail in canoes.
Megan shook her head. “You three seem to get into a lot of scrapes,” she observed.
Graham grinned. “They do. I get them out,” he replied with a laugh.
“Oh piffle!” Peter retorted. With good natured chaffing they walked on. The line curved left beside the river, passing into a tunnel of jungle which gave both pleasant relief from the sun and an interesting dapple pattern of light and shade. Just above them on the right was the highway, with the sound and occasional sight of hurrying vehicles.
Stephen pointed along the line ahead. “More Devil Worshippers,” he commented mildly. Peter felt a spasm of alarm, then snorted. Three small children were playing at the end of the tunnel of trees and two of them wore black pullovers.
Gwen shook her head. “Everybody seems to be wearing black today.”
“It must be the ‘in’ colour,” Peter suggested.
Even as he said this they reached the children. The line came out of the trees and crossed a deep backwater of the river. Beside them, on the left was a long, deep stretch of the river. On the right were the backwater and then a wall of gloomy looking jungle. The backwater was at least thirty metres across and the water quite deep and choked with snags and weeds. As before the bridge was narrow and lacked any walkway or handrails.
“Two more Devil Worshippers,” murmured Graham.
“Good heavens!” Gwen replied, but in amused amazement, not fear. Lying on a small sandy beach at the far end of the bridge were a man and a woman, both dressed in jeans and black turtle-neck skivvies; presumably the parents of the children. The couple were actually engaged in a passionate embrace when the cadets arrived but stopped when they realized they were there. Peter felt a bit embarrassed at that.
Graham took charge. “Packs off this time and undo your belts,” he ordered.
“Why?” Megan asked.
“So that you can easily dump it all if you fall in,” Graham replied.
The thought of that made Megan go quite pale. Graham reached over and took her pack off her, then, with a pack in each hand, walked out onto the bridge.
“I’ll take yours Joy,” Peter offered.
Joy didn’t want to give it up but Peter insisted. “It makes it easier for me,” he insisted. “It balances me to have a pack in each hand.”
With that she handed it over and followed Gwen and Megan out onto the bridge. Peter followed and Stephen came last. As before Megan went very slowly, stepping cautiously from one sleeper to the next. Graham waited on the other bank without his webbing.
On the far bank the railway ran into another shady tunnel of trees. This was through an area which plainly flooded during the wet season. On both sides of the low embankment were sandy flood channels. Numerous trees gave shade and the ground was alternately clean white sand or clumps of bushes. On the left the river ran shallow and fast over several set of rapids.
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A hundred metres on, just around the next bend Graham stopped and pointed to a sandy area beside the river. “Lunch.”
Megan clapped her hands with delight. “Oh yes! This is lovely!” she agreed.
They turned off, pushed through the reeds and bushes and dumped their gear beside the water.
“You can have a swim if you want,” Graham said as he sat down on his pack.
“Be too cold,” Gwen commented.
Joy bent to test it and shook her head. “Just right,” she said.
“In you go then,” Peter said.
“I didn’t bring any bathers,” Joy replied.
Stephen chuckled. “That’s OK. We don’t mind,” he said. That comment got Peter’s mind going. He had heard what Stephen had gotten up to on various swims with girls and he realized that, much as he would like to see Joy swimming nude he did not want her exposed to Stephen’s crudities.
Joy just made a face and knelt to wash her arms and face. The three girls then crossed the line and went into the bushes to go to the toilet. The boys settled to the business of lunch. Boots were removed and potential blisters seen to while tins were opened and heated. Peter opted for heating water for coffee but eating a tin of mixed fruit.
When the girls returned a few minutes later Joy seated herself on her pack beside him and proceeded to unlace her boots. Megan and Gwen both took their boots off and then sat with their feet in the water. Stephen ate dried fruit and lay back to rest.
For twenty minutes they sat talking quietly and eating. Peter found it very restful and relaxing and decided he did like Joy and that he was starting to enjoy the hike.
“A sleep would be nice,” Stephen commented.
“Plenty of time to have one,” Graham replied.
“How much further do we have to go?” Megan asked.
Graham had his map out and showed her. “We are here, at this little National Park near Petes Bridge. Little Mulgrave is only about another four kilometres. We could make it in an hour if we stepped it out.”
“Surely Capt Conkey would give us more of a challenge than that,” Gwen commented.
“Yes, he would normally,” Graham replied. “But if he has to drive to Cardwell and back he won’t be able to meet us for hours yet.”
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