Today it was time to get out there and see a bit of Atherton Tablelands so after breaky we all set off, first stop the Curtain Fig Tree. Wow! We arrived and walked down to be greeted by this huge fig tree. It was enormous to say the least. Its story of existence is not so pretty. A fig tree is created by a bird crapping a fig seed on a tree and then it grows and takes over the host tree, it's roots strangle the host tree till it dies! The Curtain Tree is actually three tree's all taken over and joined up by this fig tree. After a few pics we headed to our next stop, the Malanda Falls. We must be a bit over sensitized by our Cape York adventure as we rocked up to these falls disappointed before we saw it, just cause there was pavement to walk on instead of dirt. Felt so touristy!! Anyway, the falls were ok, nothing special, surrounded by footpaths and a concrete swimming pool. Yes l know, l am a tourist snob now, takes a bit to impress lol....
We decided to head to Millaa Millaa falls, see if these were any better! The drive was beautiful, rolling green hills filled with cows in paddocks and lush trees and small cottages on top of the hills. Reminds me of NSW country in a way, gorgeous. We got to Millaa Millaa Falls and walked down to see this tall waterfall gushing down off this cliff. It was beautiful, still had a lot of pavement around but at least the waterfall itself was more spectacular. We sat for a while and watched a long neck turtle swim by and these amazing blue colored dragonflies buzzing around, before deciding it was lunchtime. We headed back into Millaa Millaa to the bakery for a pie, well that in itself turned out to be eventful. Went to order and saw that if we wanted to eat in we would have to pay an extra $1.50 per pie or sausage roll!! Thateant an extra $6.00 on top of the $20 we were having to pay just for the food, too much for us. So went to order and they were out of pies so Marty and l decided to go to a little B&B we saw earlier that had homemade pies. The place was great, the staff were lovely and the homemade rump steak pie was cheap and delicious! After this we headed back to the others who had already ordered before we decided to leave to find that Angie had made some constructive criticism to the owner about the extra surcharge and how offensive it was and disappointing that our group had to be split up, scoring everyone free scones with jam abc cream.....god l love this woman!!!! After we had vented to one another about our ruined lunch together we headed off to do the 'falls scenic drive', first stop Zillie Falls. Again, they were nice but couldn't really access them down the bottom. Viewing platform gave is ok views (again I'm a snob). We then went to Ellinjaa Falls where at least the walk down to the falls was nice with huge moss covered trees and tropic canopy forest. The girls had been whining to swim all day, so with Angie's persistence for them, we said yes and seeing we didn't bring their bathers, a nude swim it was. They loved it, and again, Angie was right, we need to stop saying no and let them do stuff occasionally. Boo swam with Connor under the tall waterfall and thought she was fantastic, as did we!
After this the others had to head back to camp so Tanya and the kids could head back to Cairns. We kept going and it was good to do something by ourselves, we hadn't realized that we hadnt done something by ourselves for at least 5 weeks. We got to Cathedral Fig, another ginormous fig tree, again spectacular. Took some pics of the girls in the middle of it as it had a walkway leading into it, looked pretty cool. Last stop was Mobo Creek Crater, which when we got there it had a closed sign there due to recent storms. Well we headed in thinking we'd see how far we'd get. Besides a few little detours around fallen trees the track was alright and we arrived to see a pretty little place surrounded by a tropical forest and beautiful area of water.
Got back to camp and had a quick kayake with Boo out on the lake. Marty cooked tea for us while l bathed the girls in the lake, they bloody love their new bath and showers lol!!
Headed to bed beat again, glad the rain stayed away......
Bell Xx