Bishop Peak, Cardwell Range, near Ingham, North Queensland

Character: A rugged walk almost completely off tracks with considerable route finding challenges.

*Remember to take plenty of water and to tell someone of your plans!*

Ascent: ~3000 feet

Time: 9 hours, 10 km return

Map: Cardwell 1:50,000 map, Sheet 8161 3

The coastal strip between Ingham to the south and Cardwell to the north is hemmed in by quite impressively high mountains to the west and Hinchinbrook Island to the east. This walk is up one of those hills, Bishop Peak, which is just under 3000 feet in elevation. I must admit at this point that due to illness in our group, we did not quite make the summit, but we were almost within spitting distance!

Bishops Peak East Ridge seen from the North

The start point is at the Fisher's Creek Landing side road off the Bruce Highway. This is about 20 km north of Ingham, about 7 km beyond the highway pass over the Cardwell Range, and just 1 km south of where the highway crosses the railway tracks. Heading from the South you cross Waterfall Creek then a few metres on Fishers Creek and the old road on the right signed for Fisher's Creek Landing is where you can leave your car.

From here, cross the highway and head through the works tracks to the railway line. Follow this south for a few metres until another works track heads into the forest to the WSW. This leads through to the electricity pylon cutting. The map shows roughly the course of this track to the cutting. We simply followed this perhaps 200 metres SE and at roughly grid reference 097 583 we headed off the track upwards through the scrub and long grass to the south west.

The long grass is passed after a few hundred metres, and the country continues to climb, though never too steeply. At roughly a height of 150 metres, two large rocks, perhaps 5 metres high are encountered, and we headed more southerly, and came across the first major obstacle, a slab of rock that needed to be climbed. This is a simple scramle, but is quite flat with limited hand and foot holes. It only climbs about 10 metres but none-the-less we considered that next time a short length of rope might be handy. The views from the top of the slab out to Hinchinbrook Island and the channel were spectacular.

Not long after this first slab, another rock escarpment is reached. This one has a chink in its armour, and by contouring with the rock on your right (ie heading roughly south east) you can find this gap. This gap in the rock is marked by a cairn at the top to help you find it on the descent. In fact there were a surprising number of cairns on the route, which inspired confidence and relief as each one was encountered!

Shortly after this the ridge was gained, at roughly GR 090 573. There are views from here across to the more substantial ridge to the south and it is clear that this ridge would be a very challenging walk indeed! Best avoided. The current ridge is followed to the WSW. Eventually it leads out to a more open area which appears to be where this ridge meets another one .Two or three quite spherical 2 metre high boulders are met here. From this point the actual summit is seen for the first time since starting the climb, above and beyond a rocky outcrop on the ridge. There are great views from just beyond here across a valley to a further ridge to the south. The drop immediately underneath you is quite sheer and several hundred feet. Looking to the West, you can see the peak (or at least the start of the peak!).

So we traversed around to the north side of the outcrop over quite rough ground with good views down and to the north. We then re-joined the ridge and skirted the next, bigger outcrop on its south side. There is a small drop beyond this, and a scraggy forest joins the saddle from the north, petering out on the ridge line, almost as if it has been chopped. We had decided to head directly up from this saddle, thena few hundred feet up, to cross the face of the summit to the south to gain the ridge on this side, as it looked significantly less steep. Opinions were divided however, as the strong wind was coming from the south and was blowing fiercely across this ridge. Certainly, although this more nothern of the two ridges was the steeper, and there were some huge boulders and formations up to 7 metres high on it, it looked very climbable. Unfortunately at this point one of our party became ill, and athough she soon receovered it was wiser to descend rather than attempt to get to the top. My estimate was that it was another hour or so to the actual summit. I hope to go back and reach the top some day!

The return was an exact reverse of the ascent. As Peter, our experienced "leader" had suggested, route finding on the way back down was tricky. Visibility most of the way is very limited by the trees, and ridges seem to start, merge, and disappear remarkably quickly. The photo above makes the walk look so easy! One long straight ridge. Unfortunately it is not that straightforward, and the GPS in Peter's capable hands was almost essential. The cairns helped on the way down, but even if you are only 3 or 4 metres off the main route you may not spot these, are there are maybe only about 5 on the whole ascent anyway. Go well equipped, and look for landmarks on the way up that will help you route find on the way back down.