The Green Arrow Trail - Cairns

Today's trail run was to try out the new Green Arrow track in Cairns. We've had the Red and the Blue Arrows for years now, but just in the past few months the Green has been added.  

This new track runs one way from the Blue Arrow track out into a residential area, so we parked in the car park at the end of the track and ran in a loop - first through the houses to the start of the Red Arrow, then up the Red, onto the Blue and finally joined onto the new Green Arrow track at the top of the hill.

The tracks are all well signposted and the new Green track is very clear!

The way we did it meant we went downhill on that section virtually all the way, which is always a nice way to finish a run!

There is an open flat grassy area on the track from where you have a 360 view around Cairns and the surrounding hills.

All in all it was a lovely run, 10 km all together.

The Blue Arrow Trail - Cairns

A beautiful trail run or walk in Cairns is the Blue Arrow - a loop that follows on from the very popular and smaller Red Arrow track.  The Red Arrow is around 1 km long and is a straight forward uphill then downhill loop. I run that a few times each Wednesday as it's near where my girls have their hockey training, so it's a convenient hill workout. There are always plenty people walking or running the Red Arrow track at any time!

The Blue Arrow is a bit longer and for me takes about an hour to run combined with the Red.  My best time is 58 mins, but I haven't run it in a long time and I'm sure I could go a little faster than that now - but maybe not yet as fast as my speedy husband! It's kind of uphill with a few flat parts for the first half, then downhill, flat with small uphills for the second half. A good interesting twisting, turning trail, and nice and shady for running in the tropics on hot days!

At the weekend we took our girls around the Blue Arrow track for a walk - so it was a good opportunity to take a few photos to show the trail!

This warning sign is at the start of the Blue Arrow track.  The track isn't hard to follow, but I guess I wouldn't want to be on it after dark!

So here's a few pictures of the trail itself:

A view from near the start - out over the sea and the Great Barrier Reef. You can see Green Island from up here.

There are LOTS of steps..

And plenty of roots..

A nice distinct and clear track.

 You definitely have to be careful where you plant your feet!

There are some interesting trees and plants along the way..

Towards the end, the trees thin out and it gets brighter!

And you finish off by going down the well worn and quite civilised concrete Red Arrow Steps:

So there you have it. The Blue Arrow - Cairns. A beautiful walk, or a good trail run!