We had stopped in at the front desk at our hotel, to book a tour for our second day in Cairns. We had decided that we wanted to go on a Tablelands and waterfall tour. We saw a brochure that also bundled the tour with a trip on the Kuranda Railway and Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, and wanted to see if she could book the tour for us. Unfortunately, when she called the tour company, they were all booked for the next day. While the desk clerk was on the phone, she asked the company, if it knew of other companies that were doing a waterfalls tour. She wrote down the number of a company called Waterfall Wanderers, which didn’t have a brochure, but had a bus that would pick you up at your hotel and take you on the tour the next morning. We told her to book it.
The next morning, we woke up and enjoyed the continental breakfast that was provided by the Hides Hotel, and sat on the large patio overlooking the quiet downtown. When we made our way to the street where we were to be picked up at 7:45, we found ourselves waiting for almost a half hour. As time passed more buses drove down the main street, stopped at other hotels and started their tours, but we were left waiting while listening to a construction company refurbish a store front next door.
Around 8:15, a tour bus rolled up and a tall guy with a beard, a backwards baseball cap, and curly hair said, “Are you Christopher?” and we boarded the bus. I noticed that seat next to him and the seat behind it on the left side of the bus were open, so I asked if I could sit up front. Elizabeth sat behind me and I have a perfect view of the tour from what felt like the drivers seat. We had to make a few more stops along the way, but we were quickly starting are way up through the Tablelands.
The Atherton Tablelands are flat grasslands that were used mostly for farming sugar cane and other crops from what I could tell. Occasionally, you would see a “cane train” which road along side the road picking up the stalks of sugar cane that were being harvested.
Right away, I started getting acquainted with the driver, who I believe was named, John. John appeared to be in his late 20’s-early 30’s and he was the kind of guy that you would expect would take you on such a journey like this. He told me and Elizabeth that he would find a job in a different country and take off and live there for a few months or years and then move to a new place. Most of his destinations, like a ski lodge in Switzerland, or white water rafting in Colorado, were nature and extreme sports focused, but he said that he grew up near Sydney. He was the kind of guy that I would’ve wanted to be, if I didn’t spend my 20’s terrified of not having a stable income and trying to find a “real job”. I knew that this guy was going to feel like a long lost friend on this tour and I tried to stick by him as we went along.
Our destinations along the way were Babinda Boulders, Josephine Falls, Crawfords Lookout, Millaa Millaa Falls, a stop at the Malanda Pub, Mount Hypipamee, Bromfield Crater, the Curtain Fig Tree, a stop off for look for a platypus, and Lake Eacham.
From Cairns, we headed down down the Bruce Highway through the tablelands. The Tablelands are flat grasslands that are used mostly for farming sugar cane and other crops such as bananas, corn, avocados, and citrus. Occasionally, you would see a “cane train” which road along side the road picking up the stalks of sugar cane that were being harvested. As we drove, a cow or two would be seen in the distance, so we knew that a dairy wasn’t too far off.
Our first turn off was through the small town of Babinda. The town competes every year for the Golden Gumboot with the town of Tully, for the wettest town in Australia. Every year Babinda wins the prize. That early summer day, the sky was clear and blue, with maybe a wisp of cloud in the distance. Continuing through the town, about 10 minutes down the road, we arrived at the Babinda Boulders.
When the bus stopped, John the Driver, set out some cookies and coffee at a picnic pavilion, and we were welcome to take a nice stroll with our refreshments down the trail. As we continued from the parking lot down the paved trail through the rainforest, we arrived on the other side at the main swimming hole. The massive, smooth boulders had been shaped by the flooding creek for thousands of years almost making it look like a giant rock floating on the water. The water was too shallow during this season to wade in, so we continued our tour. We sort of took our time walking back through the rainforest. We talking about what would happen if we did missed the bus, taking a second to look at the river, watch butterflies, and checking out the boulders down the way. Oddly, enough while we were taking a slow stroll, everyone else was back on the bus and we were the last ones on.
We drove back through the town of Babinda and got back on the Bruce Hwy for 22km, before we arrived at Josephine Falls in the Wooroonooran National Park. Unlike our last stop, we would actually be able to get wet on the natural waterslide, below the falls. We followed John down the narrow paved trail, like boy scouts following their troop leader. Elizabeth talked to him about going on the Great Barrier Reef and he talked to her a little about his experience.
At the end of the trail was a steep staircase with a railing to keep us safe, then a sign warning us of the dangers of doing too much screwing around near the rocks. We all stripped down to our bathing suits and some people were braver than others to hop right in the cold water. And the water was cold. Having just been in the ocean in a wet suit, I thought, “Oh, this is going to be nice.” but the water was maybe 60 degrees. I slowly eased in and waded through the waist high pool. The bottom was smooth rocks most of the way, so at some point you sort of had to dive forward and give it a little swim. The rocks below where really slippery, so we struggled as we climbed up the smooth rock slide, to where the upper falls deposited. Then we balanced on the boulder slowly walking across to place where the water was rushing down. And 1, 2, 3, slide into the pool below. Splash! As cold as the water was as we were splashing in, it was definitely refreshing on such a hot day.
We waded around in the crystal clear water admiring the falls, while John the Driver took photos of all of our fellow passengers as they plunged into the pool. After another 10 minutes or so, we all headed back up the staircase, and back through the rainforest to the bus.
The next part of the drive was about an hour before we arrived at Millaa Milla Falls. This waterfall was made famous in Australia by commercials using it in the background, while women flipped their long hair back. One by one, the woman would wade into the water and flip their hair back with the falls in the background. I personally don’t remember seeing the commercial, but the falls, while barely a trickle during this seas, were a beautiful sight to see. Elizabeth and I debated as to whether or not we would cross over to actually sit under the waterfall, as some of our fellow passengers were eager to do. After a few minutes, I finally decided, “Screw it, I’m only going to be here once in my life. I might as well.”
The water was a little murky, which was a little bit of a turn off for me, but I eased into the cold water again, until it required a little swimming to sped up the process. Elizabeth waited behind, watching the koi fish and the turtles. When I finally made it under the falls, I flicked my hair around like I was in a cold shower and the experience of sitting under a waterfall was worth the chill. Because, when else are you going to be able to sit under a famous waterfall. Once in a lifetime.
We hopped back on the bus and headed up Highway 25, to the small town of Malanda, where we stopped off at the Malanda Hotel Motel. John the Driver had taken down our orders and called ahead, so that when we arrived, we barely had to wait. I believe that there was an option of hamburger, hot dog, veggie burger, or chicken breast, but Elizabeth and I both ordered the veggie burger with fries. Supposedly, it is the biggest timber pub in Australia, and considering its location is was definitely the biggest pub within 20 miles or so. The place had sort of an old timey feel, like when you walk into a place in the states that just feels like it’s been there for 100 years. The wooden floor creeks, the walls look paper thin, and you get the feeling like a nice strong wind would blow the place down. Yet, there it still stands.
We sat in the dining room, while the far side of the building where the bar was located had a numbers game on the screen, where I guess the locals can get in a little gambling while they have a pint. Elizabeth went over to the bar and treated us to a pint of Iron Jack beer to go with our meal, and then we waited patiently for our food to arrive. The food was fairly unremarkable, in the way that food that is included in your tour can’t be too bad, but if it was inedible, we would have remembered.
I took one last walk around the building to check out the town. I also stopped into the corner store across the street to get piece of candy and a soda for the road, because I was already starting to drift into a sleepy state, giving the windiness of the roads in between destinations. It seemed clear that at that point the Malanda Hotel Motel Pub got most of it’s lunch time business from the Waterfall Wanders. And if it wasn’t along the way, we wouldn’t have a place to stop and have lunch.
By this time, John the Driver had given me the reigns of the music and I plugged in my ipod and began playing all of my favorite road trip songs. Elizabeth thought that I should’ve been playing more 80’s tunes, but my library was limited and I didn’t have my data plan hooked up, so I wasn’t able to stream. So it looked like Boston, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd won the day.
After a 20 minute drive down the road, we made it to the Mount Hypipamee Crater. Upon arrival, we hiked through the rainforest, looking out for bats or sky foxes as the sign kindly named them. This park had lots of signs to guide and inform you of what was happening in the area. Then we quickly arrived at “the Crater”. The diatreme was created by a volcano below and is 61 meters in diameter and 82 meters deep. The surface of the water is covered with duck weed, so if you happened to fall in, not only would you probably die from the fall, but you would feel gross from the settled water that didn’t look like it had moved in centuries.
Another 20 minutes back up the Highway 25 was the Curtain Fig Tree. As soon as we got off the bus, John the Driver pointed out a large leaf across the street. He told us not to touch it because it was a gympie, also known as the suicide plant. Apparently, if you touch the leaves of the plant tiny stingers get caught in your skin and can sting you for months. The constant paint is so excruciating that you will want to kill yourself. It is rumored that someone used the giant leaf as toilet paper and eventually took his own life. As a result, I kept my distance and stayed across the street, while another passenger went in for a closer look.
The path to the famous Curtain Fig Tree was wooden walk way with railings, almost like a bridge through the forest. I don’t know, if it was to protect the forest and especially the tree from damage from humans or to protect humans from the poisonous plants. According, to the Waterfall Wanderers website, it was the biggest tree that we would ever see and it was certainly that. The large fig tree, whose roots towered above us 49 feet, was about 500 years old. It is rumored that James Cameron came to see the tree and it became the inspiration for Tree of Life in the film, Avatar.
We got back on the country road for a little more than a mile, when John the Driver pulled over to the side of the road. We all got out and he informed us that we all needed to be extremely quiet, if we were going to see a platypus today. We took a trail that followed alongside the Peterson Creek, near the town of Yungaburra. According to John, he didn’t see a platypus everyday, so if we saw one than we would be lucky.
Again, we felt like we were a little troop of scouts following the leader and the sound of leaves crunching under or feet happened in single file. John began looking in the creek as soon as it was visible from the trail, but he didn’t see one. We crossed over a bridge and went passed a picnic area along side farmland. We kept walking until there was an opening in the trees, then John quietly pointed at the water. There is was a tiny little platypus, that seemed a little over a foot long. It floated across the water and paddled along before getting spooked and diving under.
We were so excited by our nature discovery, that as we headed back out to the bus, we almost weren’t terrified by the giant orb-weaver spider that was sitting in its web only a few feet from the path.
The tour was winding down, but we still had one last stop at Lake Eacham. Similar to the Crater that we saw earlier, Lake Eacham had been formed by a large volcano. We had lots of time to walk around, swim with pool noodles, or jump off the pier into the lake. While some of the crew opted to jump in off the pier, Elizabeth and I started by heading down the path, where there were families and their kids playing in the water. It was said that there is one freshwater crocodile that hangs out in the lake, but isn’t known to have attacked anyone. We were careful to look out for anything that looked like a floating log, so that we wouldn’t be the first.
The lake was filled with fish and supposedly turtles (even though we didn’t see any). The water was around 70 degrees and comfortable for swimming around, especially compared to the creeks that we had been in throughout the day. We spent a little while floating around on some pool noodles, but eventually opted to join our fellow passengers by the pier. I took a few shots of me jumping in while holding the GoPro, before we were told to head back up to the bus.