A great day with Gus and cousin Paul in the Atherton Tablelands

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I booked the famous Uncle Brian's tour to the Atherton Tablelands for Tuesday. Some explanations: the Atherton Tablelands are an very green, rainforest, waterfalls and lakes area just outside of Cairns. The famous uncle Brian's tour is... well you'll read about it in a moment.

I was picked up by Gus and cousin Paul in the morning. Gus is our bus for today, a bus with a soul of its own, and cousin Paul is our guide. The weather was awful - rainy and coldish, not at all what you wish for a day of lakes and waterfalls where you want to swim and have fun. So we were all a bit gloomy in the bus but Paul did everything he could to cheer us up - jokes, funny stories, etc.
We started our day in Babinda, which was selected in some weird competition as the town with the nicest people in Queensland. To prove that Paul honked for every person and the street and gave a wild wave... some actually waved back. The poor people get that every day... Then we continued to Babinda creek. Normally it's a creek but after 1.5 days of rain, this was a big and strong river, with rapidcurrents. Normally we were supposed to swim there, but definitely not today... But we did have a short hike in the rainforest - we were all very brave and we were all very wet in the end (I arrived back to the bus with my shoes and my pants soaking wet), but we did see this magnificent forest, with these old trees.
Leaving Babinda creek we have a chance to give Gus a fly, says Paul. We all wonder how Gus the bus will fly, and we follow Paul's instructions: we open the window, we put a hand out, we move it up, then down, up again... you can imagine that, a whole bus is flying :-) We can't stop laughing :-):-):-)
We pass again in the town of Babinda, and Paul shows us Vanessa who normally lives there. Who's Vanessa? I'll tell you soon.
We continued to Josephine falls. There we were supposed to slide on the rocks but again - not today. However we do get a rare chance to see the falls at their best, fast, big, they're absolutely huge compared to their normal dry season appearance. They are really amazing.
Now we have to travel for about an hour. Will that be a boring drive? Not with Paul and Gus. Paul explains that we need to feel a bit closer to each other. He hands out matches to all of us and then presents Wolly, the magic ring. We pass it from one to the other using the matches held between our lips. I couldn't stop laughing so I didn't do very well. Some were a lot more successful... Then we get some games to play with and chocolate as an aperitif for lunch.
Lunch was great with home made bread rolls, pies and potatoes, and great cake and ice cream for desert. We all missed some home made things for a while and we enjoy that a lot. During lunch we learn more about Vanessa, the ambulance who's in love with Gus. The problem is, Gus heart is already given to the Swedish Volvina, who works for the milk factory. Paul reads us some love letters Vanessa wrote to Gus and we try not to choke as we laugh and eat at the same time...

We continue to Milla Milla falls. Again in amazing synchronization the right music is played to create the expectation atmosphere and the climax is reached right when we park in front of the falls. Beautiful falls, especially today, and some of the braver ones (not including me) even go for a swim. You don't care that it rains when you swim, but it's not a big fun to get out of the water and stay wet...

We drive to Eacham lake where we get hot chocolate with marshmallow - perfect in this weather, and we see fresh water turtles. Then we see the curtain fig tree - an amazing rainforest phenomenon. Last stop is for fruit wine tasting - a bit sweet except for the "snake wine" - lime and chilly wine, wow that was strong!

The ever going stand up comedy on the bus continues all the way down to Cairns. We dance together for "The lion sleeps tonight", we do arms dance for "YMCA", we make a separate girls choir and a boys choir for "You've lost that lovin' feeling", we dance with Elmo that lives with Gus and we take pictures with him. And most of all - even though it was a lousy day weather-wise and we didn't see everything and didn't slide on the rocks and all this fun things, we are laughing and we are happy and we had a terrific day! Thanks cousin Paul, thanks Gus!

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