The Highland Tropical Complexed Rainforest of the Atherton Tablelands!

Today has been pretty cool! We got up early to discover someone had nicked our cheese out of the fridge (that was NOT cool - it was a full, unopened block as well!), and set off with 'On The Wallaby' Tours at about ten to 8am. We found this company over the internet whilst we were in Noosa, and for a company that we'd not heard of, therefore had no recommendations for, it was pretty good! Feel like a proper tourist doing all these tours, and my excuse that we're too young to hire a car is wearing thin! But I guess it's the only way we're going to see anything really. Our driver was cool (with his moustache, sideburns and grey hair that was longer than mine!). His name was Bart and he was cracking jokes all the way which made it all the more fun!

We first drove through the Gillies Ranges, which became a World Heritage Listed site in 1988, 7 years after the Great Barrier Reef. There is actually only 6% of the original rainforest left, as the remaining 94% was cut down before 1988 for timber and to make room for dairy farming. Which is a bit of a shame. We stopped at Heales Lookout to take in the view of the valley below, and there was the same blue haze over it as there was in the Blue Mountains. We climbed up a 19km mountain road with a total of 237 bends, corners or curves, then visited the Cathedral Fig Tree. Why visit a tree? There's plenty of them! you may ask, but this one is very special. It's a tree which a fig seed has landed on, grown it's roots down, and suffocated til it rotted away, leaving just a mass of down-facing roots. The tree was over 500yrs old too, so it was pretty hefty - 40m in diameter. Oh, and I also fell over as I came out of the bus and sprained my ankle, which is not uncommon I guess.

Next we stopped at Lake Barrine, and me and Claire spotted a Ulysees Butterfly, which is a beautiful, bright blue and black butterfly, but it fluttered away before I managed to get my camera out. The Lake was a lovely blue, and I was surprised to see a couple of ducks on it! We took a walk through the surrounding bush and Bart pointed out different plants and wildlife, including two poisonous fruits and one stinging tree - the Gympie Gympie tree - like a nettle but bigger, much more painful, and with stings lasting up to 12 months! We also saw a musky rat, which is the smallest species of macropod (or kangaroo). It was fatter than I imagined but only 6 inches tall at the most. They're really timid though - I saw it from a distant but most people didn't even get to see it as it had hopped off. Then we saw a dragon (not a real one, just one of the lizards who pretend to be one!), and it jumped onto another branch to catch an insect, which was a bit unnerving!

We then stopped at the Lake Eacham roadhouse, where Bart picked up some dinner for us... and we strolled into the free wine-tasting venue next door! It was called Pacific Blue Winery, and they specialise in fruit wines - we tried a normal grape one first, then lime, mango, passionfruit, and lychee. Some were quite sweet but they were all really nice. The best one was the last one though - 'Midnight Magic' - gold medal winner of the Cairns Wine Festival (Sweet Fruit Wine category). Get this - it was a chocolate wine! And it was absolutely gorgeous! We nearly bought a bottle as it was only $25, but they have an outlet on the market next door to our hostel so we may investigate on Wednesday! There was also the option to try their Chilli and Lime Wine, and browsing the menu I spotted a Garlic Wine too. Funnily enough, neither sounded overly appealling!

We sat and ate dinner just behind the trees of Lake Eacham, and got chatting to 2 spanish airline crew members who work for JAL (who we fly with). They assured us that Japan is lovely and very tourist-friendly, and confirmed that Kyoto would be a much nicer place to stay than Osaka. So that was comforting! After lunch we walked down to the lake and spotted some turtles! They are the cutest little guys! They swim funny, like front right arm with back left leg and vice versa. It's well cute!

Then on the way to the edge of the lake I fell over... again! It really hurt that time too - I cut the bottom of my toe and my knee on the opposite leg to my by-now-very-swollen ankle, so getting into the lake wasn't all too easy. Especially when the fish started sucking my leg where it was cut! It freaked me out so much I had to get out after about ten minutes! We also saw a green tree snake here, only our second snake in 6 weeks.

Next we made our way to Millaa Millaa Falls, the most photographed waterfall in Australia. And I can see why - it was fantastic! I got in the plunge pool to swim underneath it, but I kept stubbing my poor toe, and it was absolutely freezing! - much more cold than the lake! So in short I didn't bother. Instead me and Claire opted for the dangerous walk behind the fall instead, but we didn't get all the way unfortunately. Then we visited Zillie Falls, which we viewed from the top and you could see a lovely rainbow in the spray. Lastly was Ellinjaa Falls, which was about four waterfalls in one as it was a cascading one. Very nice - got some good photos!

To end our trip we stopped at the On The Wallaby lodge - the tours actually run from a hostel - and had some tea and biscuits, before heading on back to Cairns.

So that's been my day! Other than nipping into Woolworths to get some more cheese (grr!) and a box of 8 camera films which should do me for the rest of the trip! I've gone though 7 films already and I'm on my eighth one. So I'll have plenty of photos to show you guys at home! (after, of course, I've omitted the drunken ones!). Speaking of which, I've finally emailed my skydiving exit photo (basically me hanging out of a plane with a strange guy strapped to my back at 12,000ft!) to most people on my contact list, so if you haven't got it and want me to send it to you just holler. Email me your address and it's done - all too easy!

Well, it's our reef trip tomorrow to the good ole Great Barrier Reef, so I'll let you know how that goes in due course. Take care!