Friday 17-09-2010

Well the waiting for Andy's car took a very very long time!! It was ready at 15:00 and when they went to get it from the mechanic it wasn't even totally done. When all was finished they went to the registration office but that didn't go well either…so they came back with the bad news that we wouldn't be able to leave till Monday :O Luckily they went to the registration office again…although they were to late they got told that they had 14 days to register it so we could go off on our trip. As they were doing that, me and Chistine decided to go to the camping store to get some inflatable mats. The first store had a few mats but they were very expensive…and without asking the clerk told us about another campingstore where they sold cheaper ones. We went to that store and with help of another really kind Austrlian, we could lay on the mats in store to try them,we each bought one! When we got back the rest were already doing the shopping so we could drive straight up to the Tablelands. This was going to be a night drive at least for an hour. The road there has 270 bends in it which is great fun. We got to "On the Wallaby" hostel/camping and put up our tents. Made some burgers and decided to go night canoeing. Ben, Gina and I shared a canoe. Me in front with the flashlight and Ben in the back. It was quite a long trip but we did see two possums and quite a few wallaby's. Of course lots of bats. There was this crazy German girl who was in the canoe with the guide and an other guy. She was absolutely crazy and tipped their canoe more than once. The guide wasn't all to happy with that. After we got back we made a cp of tea, talked and went to bed.

Saturday 18-09-2010

Had a good nights sleep, and got up at 8:00. We left to see the surroundings. Started off by going to see a huge curtain figtree which was really impressive…there were lots of big spiders there too. Next we went to a Malanda falls which wasn't impressive at all…lots of manmade concrete around L Next stop was Millaa Millaa falls which is the waterfall in the clip of Peter Andre, Mysterious Girl!!! Ben, Gina, Chistine and I actually got in and swam under the waterfall. The water was really really cold and there was so much force coming from the falling water that it was really windy near the falls, didn't expect that. After that we stopped to drink something warm…hot chocolate and the others also got scones with cream and jam. There was such a cute puppy there which we actually wanted to take with us but I suppose someone there would really miss him. After a nice break we drove on to see Zillie falls and Ellinjaa Falls. We had fun photographing signs…they have fun ones here. The best was the cow eating the car, to clarify, it actually meant watch out that you don't hit cattle. The last stop we made was dinner falls and a crater. The falls and crater were actually quite impressive but not as great as the Cassowary we saw. The last month only a few people have seen them so we were really happy. It got our adrenaline pumping because it was really close to the path and at one point it came towards us. A guide going by had told us to make a loud noise to keep it away. So there we were..all shouting to keep it away!! It is such an amazing animal..it's like you're in prehistoric days. It's the largest land animal in Australia and looks like a crossing between an emu, turkey and dinosaur. After that sighting we went back to the hostel and actually lost the other car on the way there. They had decided to go to the creek to see platypus. They saw lots of them and when we finally arrived there were none to be seen anywhere L Atleast we have another night here and may be able to see them tomorrow. When we got back to the hostel we were all starving and we had a great big plate of spaghetti bolognaise. After dinner the rest of the group decided to play a boardgame and I am writing my journal now…I don't want to have to write 12 days at once again!! I'm gonna head off to bed now…goodnight.

Sunday 19-09-2010

This morning it took al while for everyone to be ready but in the end we got going at around 11:00. We first went to Lake Barrine where we hiked around the whole lake. It was 5km and a great walk. The surrounding of rainforest is so surrealistic. It's like walking in a themepark. We saw two musky kangaroo rats and two red belly black snakes. These are actually one of the most dangerous snakes in Australia. The second one started hissing while I was photographing it…bit scary but very impressive. The snakes aren't that big. The first one was 2 meters and the second only 1 meter or so. After the walk we went to the cathedral fig tree. We all climbed in the tree and took foto's. The size of the tree is so impressive…it's huge!!! After that we drove to Lake Eacham where we saw lots of saw shelled turtles, which actually breath out of their bottoms :D There was a waterdragon there too. Half of the group stayed there to take a swim while Gina, Kate, Andy and I got something to drink and got fuel. We went out to look for platypus again and we did spot one this time. Funny creatures…Tonight we had leftovers for dinner. Vegi burgers, beans, egg, cheese and toast. It's going to be an early night…