Review: Mamu Tropical Skywalk
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While you may need a head for heights to make the most of your visit to Mamu Tropical Skywalk, it’s the perfect way to get a literal bird’s-eye view of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Wet Tropics rainforest.
Anyone who saw Sean Connery swinging through the Amazonian jungle canopy in the movie Medicine Man will appreciate the breathtaking vistas available from a vantage usually reserved for the birds. While this landscape is every bit as spectacular as its Amazon counterpart, Mamu offers an experience a lot easier to navigate than Connery’s elaborate system of ropes and pulleys.
Mamu is located ninety minutes’ drive south of Cairns in Wooroonooran National Park and occupies a lush pocket of rainforest. Over 150 bird species live in the wider national park, including the large-but-elusive southern cassowary. Established to preserve both the Indigenous cultural heritage and ecological treasures of the region, Mamu enables visitors to explore every part of the rainforest — from the forest floor to the treetop canopy.
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The 2.5-kilometre circuit of well-maintained, virtually flat paths and walkways make Mamu accessible to just about everyone. Named for the traditional owners of the land — the Ma:Mu people — the project cost $10 million and took 16 months to construct. There are around 156 tonnes of galvanized steel in the walkways and more than 900,000 two-litre milk bottles in the recycled plastic decking.
The ranger at the ticket office tells us that Mamu is brimming with cassowaries, forest dragons, birds, and butterflies, along with countless species of plants and flowers. She makes it sound like paradise. And it is. The minute we step onto the gravel path, we’re cocooned in the velvety embrace of the rainforest. It instantly feels about five degrees cooler and the sounds of the highway are silenced. It’s like entering a real-life fairy glade, and I expect to see a wood nymph giggling at me from behind a giant mushroom at any minute.
Every few metres, plaques and photo boards denote intriguing species of vegetation and the possible presence of wildlife. While we don’t spot any fairy-tale creatures, we do encounter John and Margie — a pair of fit 60-something Melburnians on their third visit to Mamu. Armed with advice from John and Margie (‘don’t fear the movement of the cantilever’; ‘do climb the tower’) we arrive at the first of four covered rest shelters.
From there, we venture out onto the 40-metre cantilevered viewing platform for a sweeping view of the rainforest below. Thanks to Margie, the swaying of the platform — made entirely from galvanised steel and recycled plastic — is less unnerving than if we had not been forewarned.
With some relief we return to solid ground, before moving on to the 350-metre elevated walkway. Its foundations are embedded into the side of a steep mountain, and looking down on lush rainforest canopy on one side and up at the soaring trunks of forest giants on the other is a unique experience.
We reach the observation tower and in view of my poor head for heights, I try to convince myself that the lower viewing deck is quite high enough. But my 77-year-old mother shows me a clean pair of heels and I’m left with no choice but to brave the 37-metre ascent. The view from the top is beyond breathtaking and Margie’s advice proves sound once again.
We complete the circuit in around 90 minutes, and my only disappointment is that I didn’t see Sean Connery — or even a wood nymph.
For more information, visit www.mamutropicalskywalk.com.au.
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Cover image: Tourism and Events Queensland. Additional images: Bigstock
About the writer
Julietta Henderson is a Melbourne-based travel writer and author. Originally planning to visit London for six months, she ended up staying for ten years and now divides her time between her home in Australia and several months of the year in the UK, Italy, and France. Julietta has travelled extensively through Europe, North America, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, and Russia, and believes the keys to a great travel experience are an open heart, an open mind, and an open-ended ticket. Her first two novels — The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman and Sincerely, Me — are now available in bookstores.
