Views of Cairns Airport from the Red Arrow
Following on from a previous Friday Photo that highlighted the most accessible rainforest walk for families with little kids this week’s Friday Photo features possibly the least accessible. Cairns’ Red Arrow walkway is the domain of Cairns’ fittest athletes in training and beautiful people keeping beautiful. A one hour circuit walkway it ascends the Mount Whitfield Conservation Park behind the Cairns Botanic Gardens up frankly, a hellava lotta stairs. The question was, would this family consisting of a four year old, two year old, less than fit Mum, and slightly more fit Dad cope with the walkway? The answer is a resounding YES! Although the walk does involve plenty of stairs, there were enough flat sections, and seats to catch our breath. The boys embraced the walk conquering it (almost) on their own two feet. We were rewarded for our efforts with rainforest immersion, beautiful vistas of the Coral Sea and Trinity Inlet, a prime position to observe take-off and landing planes at the Cairns airport and wildlife sightings (wallabies and scrub turkeys). We did not however come across any giant cassowary birds, which, given their occasional history of attacking humans, I was grateful for.
As we departed the Red Arrow, watching the athletes that had passed us on the path regroup for yet another circuit of the walkway little man 2 chimed out – “Mum. I want to go again.”
We didn’t see any cassowaries on our walk
I’d be lying if I didn’t say there were a more than a few steps to climb.
Tips for walking the Red Arrow with kids.
- If you want to prevent your child being bowled over by fitness enthusiasts keep them to the edge of the path.
- Take a back pack with water and snacks for your family.
- Wear insect repellent.
- Walk in the morning or afternoon, avoiding the hottest time of the day.
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We were pleasantly surprised when Aiden decided he wanted to tackle the thousand steps walk up Mt Dandenong at the age of three and three quarters.
Lots of stops, water, snacks and also mummy waiting in the car at the top though and he made it!
Attacking cassowaries! wow! kudos to you and your little guys for tackling all of those stairs. Thanks to your post, I am now off to google images of cassowaries and wallabies. When we go hiking, the most exciting wildlife sightings are usually deer and rabbits…nothing nearly as exciting as large attacking birds.
Lucia, I would love to see a deer! That would be very exciting for our family Not as excited by rabbits though…