Waterfalls and Rainforest at The Tablelands

Curtain Fig Tree
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So now we had the van it was time to start heading south. We traveled through an area known as the Tablelands; starting with a brief and expensive stay at a campsite by Lake Tinaroo we moved onto visit some of the natural attractions the area has to offer and hopefully catch sight of one of the local Cassowaries (worlds second largest flighless bird). First up was the Curtain Fig Tree near Yungaburra. This famous tree is the result of a process whereby a Fig tree grows from high up in its host tree, eventually forcing it to fall over and continue its root growth vertically into the soil, creating a curtain effect which covers the original tree (link: http://rainforest-australia.com/The_Curtain_Fig_Cycle.htm)

The group at Dinner Falls
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From there we passed Malanda Falls, the first of many waterfalls we would see and by far the most dissapointing of all. We headed to Lake Eacham after that for a swim and after driving about through the rainforest for the remains of the day we decided to go back and camp by the lake. Sitting outside the van drinking Goon; take the inner bag out of a box of wine, you have what the aussies call 'Goon'. Its the only way to drink. A great night under the stars watching the bats fly over, but we had the price of itchy mosquito bites to pay the next day!

Posted by Adam

Gang at Zillie Falls
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We woke early as we had a lot to get done. The first was a 15km track taking us through 3 of the areas best waterfalls. The first was Millaa Millaa, the location of the classic Timotei shampoo advert. We had a swim in the pool below and took our fair share of photos before getting too cold and moving onto Zillie Falls. Unfortunately no chance of swimming there but the view was pretty good anyway...more of a sequence of falls compared to Millaa Millaa's one main fall. The last was Ellinjaa; the smallest of the three. Again, photos and swimming were our main interests, with Natalie and I climbing the rocks to the side to get closer to the action.

A short drive away, near Heberton was 'The Crater', a volcanic vent hole 58 metres down to the surface of the water with another 82 metres below the surface. Being the hooligans we are we went digging for rocks to thrown in...much fun ensued with the Crater creating an gun shot like sound with every hit...the lack of more rocks put a stop to our fun.

Next to The Crater and part of the same rainforest circuit was Dinner Falls. We decided to have a spot of lunch and a beer or two out on one of the rocks and generally mooched about in the pools the the middle of the falls. As early evening came we had to make a move out of the Tablelands and continue south to a picnic area on Mission Beach, our home for the night. Dissapointingly still no sight of a Cassowary, although we all had an amazing couple of days in what has to be the most beautifully scenery around.