Malanda is near the Misty Mountains, a very appropriate name for the area near Millaa Millaa, where it appears the sun rarely shines. Lots of great waterfalls in the area and although we're a bit blase about waterfalls now, they still come up with something different to surprise us occasionally. Millaa Millaa Falls are right next to the carpark and very pretty; Dinner Falls is a long series of cascades with a very strange crater nearby, Little Millstream Falls, despite the name, is quite impressive, and the real Millstream Falls (both of these near Ravenshoe) is awesome. Love to see all of these in the wet season, they must be incredible!
One day we did a round trip which took in the famous Curtain Fig Tree, Yungaburra and Lake Tinaroo, the Cathedral Fig Tree and crater lakes Barrine and Eacham. Each of these provided great sights and it was a spectacular day. Strangler fig trees are a parasite which starts from bird droppings in the crown of the tree. Aerial roots descend and eventually envelop the host tree, which over much time dies through lack of light and rots, so the inside of the strangler fig becomes hollow. These two are the best examples I've seen- we do have strangler figs in the rainforests at home, but they don't grow quite so aggressively.
While walking around Lake Eacham, we saw a couple more examples, but they are not as photogenic as the curtain and cathedral trees. This was a pleasant walk with the misty rain clearing up as we went, and at the end, when the sun was coming out properly, we saw a biggish black snake coming out to warm up. He was fairly sluggish after days of rain.
After Malanda we headed for Ravenshoe, planning to stay at the freebie right in town, but it was just too popular- though there were a couple of spots, we decided against it and went to Archer Creek, which is a pleasant and large campground. Lots of others decided to join us there and we ended with about 45 neighbours.
Next we went to Innot Hot Springs, a big 15km further west. After such a long drive, we had to plunge into the hot pools and found it very relaxing, so we stayed there two nights and enjoyed several dips.
Moving along this morning, we have now reached Mt Surprise and tomorrow will do a guided tour to the Undarra Lava Tubes. The following day we'll do a tag-along fossicking tour, and the day after that we'll head to Cobbold Gorge, where we're booked on a guided tour which includes a boat ride through the gorge, which has a number of freshwater crocodiles.
So all very exciting at the moment, lots to do and plenty of money going outwards, but we've been fairly prudent since the Thursday Island trip and tours are the best way to see things properly and understand what you are looking at.
Mobile connection is a sore point with me at the moment because my mobile phone tells me there's no signal even when passing a tower, though Chris (also Telstra) has a good connection. I can't use his phone because the screen's all scratched so I can't see what it's saying. I see a visit to a Telstra shop coming up- when we can find one! It's been a real problem this week because of illness in the family, but luckily that's over now.
Obviously as we continue further west, we will have even worse service. The few people who live at Innot Hot Springs have to drive up the nearest hill to get a signal, and we are heading for some fairly small towns. Here in Mt Surprise they have a phone signal but are still on analogue TV and we can't pick that up either. We've had no TV for five days but at least we don't need to look at the weather forecast for a while, as it should be all fine. Not much rain falls out here, but I've been surprised to see so much greenery. When I think of outback, I think of red plains, dust and flies,and we haven't encountered any of that since we returned to Cairns from The Tip.
We plan to visit Normanton and Karumba, which is on the Gulf, before returning south.
No comments:
Post a Comment