Blog Day 140 Fri 23rd September 2011

We wake up this morning with a taste for the open road. The trip to Cape Trib would have cost around $100 each & the waterfall trip we have planned for today would have set us back around the same amount. We pinch the waterfall tour leaflet which maps out the tour route and set out onto the Bruce Highway!

Our first stop is Boulders Gorge Lookout. Similar to Mossman Gorge but on a bigger scale & you can walk to 3 different levels to get different views. We see people that have picnics set up & children running around playing ball, it's nice because it wasn't that busy at all. The only downfall was the huge blow fly's buzzing around, there are loads of them & when they bite you know about it. You literally cannot stand still so everyone looks like their wandering around line dancing. Because of the fly's we hurry around the Gorge taking pictures as we go & hurry back to the safety of Jaz. 10 seconds up the road and we are forced to pull over. One of the poxy flies has managed to accompany us in the van. Dan is having spastic attacks trying to kill it which doesn't work whilst he is trying to drive. So we stop, kill it and move on.

Next stop was Wooroonooran National Park, which must have been named by a pissed indigenous fella. Here we have a short walk up to Josephine Falls. It's not the most impressive waterfall on the route but there is a section that acts as a waterslide down to a rock pool. We watch a few people slip and slide down the rocks before heading off.

Ellinjaa Falls is next and it's a little more impressive than Josephine Falls. What's also quite nice is the fact that when we get down to the falls we are the only ones down there. We spend about half hour getting some cool photos then head a couple of minutes up the road to Zillie Falls. The base of these falls is not accessible to the public so a few photos from the top lookout point will have to do. It's still quite spectacular as there is far more water at these falls than any of the others.

On the way to the next falls there is a pretty amazing look-out point. We didn't realise we were so high up but this look provides some great photo opportunities of the valley down below.

The final waterfall is Milla Milla Falls. Probably the most famous waterfall on the tour. The reason for its fame is because it was the scene of one of the most controversial arguments in pop music history. That's right you guessed it, here is where Peter Andre famously had a row with his shirt whilst banging on about some 'Mysterious Girl'! The falls are pretty stunning and we decided that here is as good a place as any to have a spot of lunch. As we are eating the Uncle Brian's Tour bus bounces up next to us. And when we say 'bounces' we mean bounces. The bus has a crazy suspension setup that some American rap artists would be proud of. Not worth $100 per person though as Jaz can also bounce its way along with some cleaver tap dancing on the brake and gas pedals!

Our final stop on the 'tour' is the Cathedral Fig Tree. We saw some quite impressive fig trees the other day at Mossman Gorge however this one knocked the socks off of those ones! This monster of a tree is 48 meters tall, 44 meters around and is estimated to be over 500 years old. It has a real gothic feel to it especially when we stand in the centre of it being almost completely surrounded by its creepy root style structure!

On the way back to the hostel the road takes us down the side of a mountain. It's a crazy windy road that has us feeling a little dizzy by the time we get to the bottom. Half hour later and we are back at the hostel just in time for the Australia vs USA game and a spot of dinner. Today was a great day only made better by the fact that we did the tour at our own pace and for a fraction of the cost.