Day 8: Atherton Tablelands

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Woke up pretty early this morning to do a tour of the Atherton Tablelands. Was out of the house by 7am. The tour began with the guide giving everyone a hug as they got on the bus. We then had to go around and say our name, how old we are, where we're from, etc. There were a bunch of Germans and Brits, a Swedish girl, a Canadian girl and a family from Northern Ireland.

Our first stop was cathedral fig tree. It is by far the biggest tree I've ever seen in my life! The tree was one of 5 trees used to design the tree in avatar. Pretty stunning how big it is.

Next we stopped at lake eacham. It's a really pretty lake that formed in the crater of a volcano. We went for a swim there, then had a coffee, tea, cookies and fruit break. The water was pretty cold - I'd guess around 70 Fahrenheit.

After a lunch stop, we went to Dinner Falls, which are 3 waterfalls coming down the middle of the jungle. Behind one of them there's about a 3 metre long crevasse you can swim to if you're strong enough to swim through the current of the waterfall. The water here was FREEZING! It has to be pretty close to 10°C. Everyone screamed when they jumped in. The first couple guys that tried to swim behind the waterfall couldn't make it through the current, so I kind of laughed and finally got the courage to try it (because of the water temperature, not the current) and made it through in about 3 strokes. After I made it through a couple other people finally got through. When I went through, one if my contacts fell off and was sitting on my cheek (a girl pointed it out to me) so I basically put a contact back in while treading water, with a waterfall pouring down on me, in this tiny rock cave. Can't say I've done that before!

Out next stop was Milla Milla. This is where all the herbal essences commercials are filmed with the girl flipping her hair in the waterfalls. I'm running out of adjectives because they were all really stunningly beautiful in their own different way. This waterfall wasn't powerful at all, it was kind of like rain was pouring down from above. Very peaceful to go behind and watch from below.

Our last stop was Josephine falls. This one was like a waterslide that we could either slide down on our ass or belly. I did one of each. So much fun!

We got dropped off back in Cairns at around 7 and I was completely exhausted. Went for dinner, now I'm headed straight for bed. Tomorrow is my last day in Cairns, then I'm headed to mission beach on Sunday, which is the start of my trip down the coast to Sydney! On Tuesday I'm going river boarding, which should be a blast! Can't wait! The tour company I did the Atherton Tablelands tour with is called Barefoot Tours. They post free pictures on their Facebook page and there are a ton of me, so check in the next couple days for those. Ones of me swimming in all the waterfalls, going down that slide, etc. I put a couple in Facebook, but there are lots more.

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Comments

[Toni]

Great blog
What a nice day you had. Loved reading the description. The photos are amazing. Can imagine how much better everything is in person. Pretty impressive that you got your contact back in. U of T would have been proud! Looking forward to more.