Today looks like a great day to take a drive with broken clouds and the feeling of a cooler day. We got organized and headed out the door by 9 with Wes organizing the lists of stops as we drive through the Tablelands region planning to check out 2 crater lakes, 6 waterfalls and a curtain fig tree. Today’s route will cover about 300 kilometres in total starting in Cairns and returning following a circular route.
Our first stop was at Lake Barrine which is a crater lake on the Gilles Highway. Now if you ever decide to take this road from the Bruce Highway turnoff be sure to take your car sickness pills with you. This is one very windy road and to add to the excitement lets be sure to make sure it is narrow with no shoulders. When we got to the lake there was some really pretty flower beds with rain beads on the petals. However, as we walked around the 5.7 km path around the lake we did not see any wild flowers. The giant conifer tree that is along the path is a Bull Kauris (pine species) which in the example here is 45 m tall and 6 m in girth.
Since I was not able to take decent pictures of the tall trees in the rainforest and could find no flowers we ended up taking pictures of fungi. The interesting thing about walking in a jungle or rainforest is that there is a constant flow of sound around but seldom do you actually see anything. The views of the lake were almost impossible even though we walked no more than 10-20 feet from the edge because of the thickness of the vegetation. As we walked we had to be careful not to get tangled on the vines that dropped down from above that had barbs on the stem much like a raspberry bush. By the time we got back we both were a bit sweaty and hot even with a cloud layer and the cooler temperature. After all we were about 1000 meters above sea level at the lake.
We turned the air conditioner on full for a bit as we headed off down the road to the next Crater Lake called Lake Eacham. This is a smaller lake but it seems to have a developed picnic area with a well developed entrance to the lake for swimming. There are tall pine trees mentioned in the description of the lake, but we did not see many. However this was where we experienced an unfortunate event.
As we were settling to eat lunch a group of young people were hanging out close by. One of the young men decided to try to do a back flip and in the process dislocated his knee cap. Fortunately for him the lady on the other side of us was a doctor so she was able to relocate the knee cap and helped him out. I had my knee support sock in my backpack and gave it to him to slip on to stablize the knee until his friends could get him into the hospital for x-rays and attention. He was in extreme pain. We were able to help his friends get him settled into one of their cars and get settled. I had a nice chat with the Doctor Elizabeth Martin and learned that she is an author with her first book out about a lady who travels from Melbourne to Cairns which is the same route we have traveled. I will be looking for her book to read now that I have met the author.
On our way to Lake Eacham we stopped to view the curtain fig tree. It looks incredible and the way it grows is even more so. A seed is dropped on a branch of an existing tree where it germinates and a root grow downward to attach to the soil. Enriched by the soil, the fig develops aireal roots which encircle the host tree and eventually strangles the host. The host tree then falls into another tree - a stage unique to the creating of the curtain fig tree. Vertical fig roots decend from the figs trunk to form the curtain-like appearance. Eventually the original host tree rots away a free standing fig tree.
We left Lake Eacham after all the excitement and headed on to Malanda Falls. At the falls we found the locals enjoying a swim below the falls. Because of the amount of rain this spring the water levels in all the falls are much higher than normal and very brown, but with the recent heat the water temperature is warm. The height of the falls is only about 10 fee or so and while we were there one of the kids jumped from the top into the water below.
We headed on the Crater and Dinner Falls which was not all that easy since the signage was very poor. Wes did a great job of tracking down the location using the maps. (Right, Karen is not very smart about the tablelands for some reason and often did not even know we were on a road.) We arrived at the Crater and Dinner Falls to watch a couple of tourists following a bush turkey around taking pictures. However, as we talked to them we realized they thought they were taking a picture of a Cassowary since this is the Cassowary area. I tried to explain that the Cassowary was not a bird to try to follow around since they can kill you (and have killed men). Regardless they were happy with the pictures of the bush turkey.
The Crater is interesting to look at but there really is little to see and hard to photograph.
Then we walked down the path to find Dinner Falls. Again because of the volume of water flowing this really was an interesting falls that cascaded down in small falls with several paths around and over the rocks. It is hard to take a picture of the falls since they were actually several falls dropping down the stream pathway over a long distance.
We drove on to head over to Millstream Falls which means we drove beyond the return road which means we will be backtracking a short distance after we looked at the falls which are described as Australia’s widest falls (not tallest). We arrived at the falls and stepped out of the van we were accosted by a high pitched sound that was unbelievable. It was much like the sound of cicadas that we heard in southern United States. I have a video clip with sound which is the only way we could share what the sound was like. There are two clips – one with the falls and the sounds as the camera pans left and one at the parking lot without any waterfall sounds.
We returned to Palmerstone Highway and drove on to Millaa Falls. We arrived to find several swimmers in the water at the base of the falls. In fact there were a couple of people who had climbed behind the falls and we could see them through the falling water. These were beautiful falls.
A short distance down the road we found the Zillie Falls.
Then we continued on to Ellinjaa Falls and again enjoyed looking at the flow of water over rocks creating the veil look.
We planned to stop also at the Mungalli Falls as we continued on the Palmerston Highway towards Innisfail. However as we headed down the highway the clouds grew darker and thicker. Before long we were in a rainstorm so any thought of stopping and walking over to the waterfalls was set aside. When the thunder and lightening flashed around us we decided it was time to head for home. The rain pelted down so hard that at times the wipers were not able to keep the water clear so we could see the road. We simply slowed down and continued driving wondering if we were going to encounter any flooded roads. Happy to report that we did not had any such problems.
By the time we got to Innisfail the rain had started to ease off and it was not long after that on the way north again the rain stopped. We were sure that the storm was not far behind us but we figured it would arrive to Cairns after we got back and hopefully be finished by morning. This is exactly what happened, the rain started around 8 pm here and at midnight it is still raining.
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