Andrew Bain discovers the ups and downs of wilderness in Far North Queensland.
I'm standing on an island beach lined with palm trees. Craggy mountains rise more than a kilometre above and unseen waterfalls roar through rainforest, tipping into pools as cool as the sand is hot. It's a scene cut straight from the tropical island playbook.
There could be resorts here, water sports, perhaps somebody braiding hair on the beach. But on Hinchinbrook Island, Australia's largest island national park, there's nothing except a bushwalking trail and a few campsites buried into the scrub.
The Thorsborne Trail, however, is a walk that ably matches its setting. By multi-day bushwalking standards, this Queensland trail is as near as things get to leisurely. Running for 32 kilometres along the island's east coast, the walk is typically broken into four days, hopping from beach to waterfall to swimhole to beach, covering an average of just eight kilometres a day. 
It's no travelator. The ground can be hard, rocky and uneven, the sand can be soft and deep, the heat is often intense and the crocodile warning signs can be intimidating. But few multi-day bush walks in Australia pack so much pleasure with so little pain.
The trail begins on the sweeping arc of Ramsay Bay, reached by ferry from the town of Cardwell, midway between Townsville and Cairns. Step out of the boat at the end of the ever-narrowing mangrove channels and it's immediate immersion into the Hinchinbrook landscape.
Along the dunes that back Ramsay Bay, much of the bush is still raked bare from Cyclone Yasi four years ago. Coral rubble litters the long beach, and the island's highest peak, 1121-metre Mount Bowen, rises dramatically beyond the beach's southern end.
The Thorsborne Trail has few climbs of any note, but the first comes almost immediately. Out of Blacksand Beach, the trail rises to the shoulder of low Nina Peak. It's a short climb complicated by the heat but it's less than an hour of effort. Soon I'm on the shoulder of the mountain, with Nina Peak rising above me.
The trail continues down on to the sands of Nina Bay, but an unmarked track detours to the summit of Nina Peak, 300 metres above the bay.
It's the one high vantage point anywhere near the trail. From the summit, it's like looking down on to the veins of the land, with ocean channels cutting into the island's northern shores - snaking lines of water that feed one of Australia's largest mangrove areas in a primordial scene that looks part Amazon and part Coral Sea.
Where the mangroves end, beaches begin. This night we'll camp at Little Ramsay Bay, less than seven kilometres from where we began walking. Boulders freckle the beach, and a lagoon drains out to sea, cutting a deep ravine through the sand. We pitch our tents on the banks of the lagoon.
Like so many hikes, the best part of the Thorsborne Trail may be camp. We wash in the lagoon, and cook and eat on the beach. The paperbark trees gleam yellow at dusk, and the mountain tops will glow red at dawn.
Soon the only lights are the stars smeared across the sky and our head torches going about the business of preparing for bed. For most in the camp, bed comes about 7.30pm, with the natural rhythms of the world - up at sunrise, down soon after sunset - organically restored, as they so often are on a hike.
The new day we set out hopping once more between beaches, though this day will be more about bush than beach. A long headland crossing to Zoe Bay underpins our longest day on foot. I'm bathed in sweat before we leave the beach, and the only breeze here is my breath. It could easily be hellish, but it's not.
Part way across the headland is tiny Banksia Falls. We strip down and climb into the pool at its base for the coolest swim yet. The sun beats down, but the water is blessedly cold.
Just ahead is the most striking example of one of the Thorsborne's greatest features: the rapid transition of forest types. Descending to Zoe Bay, we're one moment in rainforest and the next in a paperbark swamp. A few steps beyond the skeletal limbs of the paperbarks are lines of mangroves, but just as soon we're back into rainforest. This island is so many different places.
Zoe Bay is another grand sweep of beach, but lined with mangroves it feels like croc country. As the tide marches towards the campsite, there are moments you inevitably wonder ... but this evening it's just a couple of reef sharks that are sighted scouting the shores.
The real attraction here is a waterfall. A few minutes' walk from the beach, Zoe Falls pour over a cliff, forming a large pool. As I wash away the residue heat of the day, dozens of jungle perch crowd around me. On previous visits to the island, these fish have been bold enough to nibble at my toes but today they're content just to stare.
The next morning we walk out past the falls and from here begins the trail's most sustained climb. At first it's a steep ascent, rising through the cliffs to the head of the waterfall, where plunge pool follows plunge pool and there are views out beyond Zoe Bay, now far below. There's a Kakadu-like feeling here, but with an ocean view. For more than half a day, South Zoe Creek will be our companion.
The climb tops out at a saddle little more than 200 metres above sea level - the highest point along the trail - where it feels for the first time as though the southern end of the island, and the end of our walk, is near.
Ahead, views open out to the Palm Islands, about 40 kilometres to the south, with the tip of the 5.7-kilometre-long Lucinda jetty - the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere - angling out from behind Hinchinbrook's slopes.
The beach on Mulligan Bay, the trail's long home straight, looks sadly near.
This day, however, we're walking from waterfall to waterfall and, from the saddle, the trail drops steeply in and out of creek beds before finally arriving at Mulligan Falls. I pitch my tent at the edge of the campsite, just a few steps to the base of the falls. The campsites here are as enticing as any resort - tiny parcels of private real estate set beside a natural plunge pool deep in the rainforest.
A noisy pitta, a bird as colourful as a rainbow, bounces about the camp waiting for scraps. A tree snake balances atop a rock beside the pool. Native fawn-footed melomys - the so-called Hinchinbrook rats - scurry about in the dark, stealing into campers' food bags.
Long after sunset, I wade into the pool at the base of the falls. In the light of my head torch, a turtle and dozens of fish circle me. It feels as though I've stepped into an aquarium. No resort can compare to this.
TRIP NOTES
GETTING THERE
Virgin Australia and Qantas fly to Townsville from Sydney and Melbourne. Hire cars are available at the airport, or Greyhound Australia makes the two-hour bus journey. Absolute North Charters operates a ferry service to Ramsay Bay from Cardwell, and between Mulligan Beach and Lucinda at the trail's southern end. See absolutenorthcharters.com.au.
WALKING THERE
Permits are required to hike the Thorsborne Trail, with only 43 people allowed on the trail at a time. See parks.nprsr.qld.gov.au/permits.
The writer travelled courtesy of Tourism and Events Queensland.
MORE INFORMATION
nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/hinchinbrook-thorsborne
queensland.com