Day 112 - Tablelands and Waterfalls tour - Sunday 5th February 2012

This morning we were off to do our "Tablelands" tour, this was a tour that our original agents gave us for free so we were a little bit dubious as to what it would be like. We were picked up at 7am by our tour guide for the day; his name was Wyily, apparently a very Australia name although neither I nor Soph had ever heard of it?! After about 30 mins of collecting other people from various hostels around town, we were off. Wyily kept the whole bus in good spirits by telling us all about Australia's various historical, animal and geographical facts (sounds boring but was actually really interesting!). Then we arrived at our first stop - Babinda Boulders River. Here we were told about an old aboriginal tale where a aboriginal woman could not marry the man she wanted to so she committed suicide; in aboriginal culture suicide is a big no no so the elders did a curse to trap her in the boulder river forever. Since then, at the boulders river, 23 men have disappeared after swimming there. After telling us that story he then said that the river also has a sieve current, which means it has an undercurrent that has a drag effect which pulls you under until you reach the sea - so that may have something to do with the 23 missing men! After some photos we headed to Josephine falls. Now you don't need to go to the waterpark if you live near Josephine falls; this place was like waterpalace and was by far my favourite. On the walk through to Josephine falls we saw some really big spiders too, there is one called the St Andrew cross which was massive and sits in the middle of its web like the cross of St Andrew! Then into the clearing came Josephine falls; is where a huge waterfall meets some boulders that have been there for millions of years, due to the masses of water that pass through it and over it, it has carved and shaped the rocks into a kind of water slide and because of the speed of the water it has a slimy moss on it. We all got into our trunks and swimming costumes and jumped in - it was freezing!! It was so funny we were all like 12 year old children swimming over, climbing up the rocks and then sliding down it to crash into the water! We all did it so many times that we all had the green slimy moss all over our bums! After all the excitement of the natural water slide sensation we were all starving so Wyily our tour guide BBQ'd up some egg and bacon sarnies which were lovely!

I remember when I was about 18 that every girl I knew loved Peter Andre because of his famous mysterious girl video, you know the one with his six pack and the girl in the waterfall… Well now was my chance because we were off to Millaa Millaa falls, the place where the video was filmed and just by chance I have a 6 pack (of XXXX!). Before we reached the waterfalls of Millaa Millaa we stopped in their town's high street that had 1 pub, 1 restaurant and 1 chemist! We had a coffee at the local restaurant and also a lovely big slice of banana cake - this was sure to help with my re-enactment of the mysterious girl video! The waterfall at Millaa Millaa was truly amazing and it was relatively empty, we took some photos and then jumped in the water - again it was freezing. We swam right up to it and the power of it was amazing, then we dived under the falls to the wall behind the down pour and watched it fall from the inside. Next up was Curtain fig tree, this is an old tree that was huge and in a forest that contains Australia's rarest wild animal - the tree kangaroo - yes you guested it, a hopping kangaroo that lives in a tree, quite how living in a tree and hopping work is beyond me but maybe that is why it is rare?! Anyway our guide had informed us that the chances of seeing one was pretty much zero as in 10 years he had only ever seen one a hand full of times. Well as we stood looking at a tree, albeit an impressive tree, one of the girls tapped me on the shoulder, pointed to the high branches of another tree and said "Is that possum hopping?" And there we had it - a massive tree kangaroo climbing all the way down and then hopping away right in front of us!! Our tour guide was amazed to say the least! After all the excitement of the kangaroo that lived in a tree we proceeded to Lake Eacham; but on the way we stopped alongside a river to spot platypus and whilst we were there played with the sensitive grass - when you touch it the little leaves retract in!

We arrived at Lake Eacham - here there was a variety of animals to see from turtles to water dragon lizards, but it also had a massive rubber tree that was climbable and hung over the lake. In and around this tree was about ten 11 year old kids climbing and dropping in it like coconuts falling from the trees. As I still feel like an 11 year old, Soph says I act like one, I whipped off my t-shirt and flops and headed for the tree, the problem was that once I got to the top it suddenly look a long way up!! With the queue behind me getting bigger and the young kids starting to heckle me I decided to go for the back flip with double pike and turn, to show them who was boss - let's just say my back and feet were sore afterwards! This didn't deter me though; but after 5 more jumps I was done! This was our last stop on a really enjoyable day, so back at the hostel we treated ourselves to fish and chips from over the road and went to bed with water still in our ears!