23rd February 2008

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23rd February 2008
We are still at Rain Forest Motel in Atherton Tablelands. The motel reception was broken into last night and when we got up this morning there were police checking out the crime scene.
We went to check if our hire car had been broken into when we noticed a large stick insect on the rear wheel arch which was a work of art, he was just like a dead leaf and huge! He was at least 9 inches long.
Atherton Tablelands is a bit like Derbyshire and is quite different from the rain forest jungle area we were recently in. The countryside is rolling plains of cattle country with occasional bits of rainforest in the creek areas and ranges of mountains in the distance.
Today we went waterfall spotting. There are several routes which take you past large and small falls on different rivers. We had a lovely day cruising round from Millaa Millaa Falls on to Zillie Falls and then Ellinjaa Falls. The scenary was really lovely in the bright sunshine. After looking at all the falls we went back to Millaa Millaa and swam in the pool beneath the waterfall which was so refreshing.
I nearly didn't go in as a small green tree snake made a mistake swimming across the creek and found himself surrounded by many feet as a bus load of Japanese tourists blocked his route back to the bushes. I was going to pretend we had seen a big snake but the pebbles rather give the scale away. I thought he might have some friends in the pool, but Bob pointed out that the Japanese girls shrieking would have scared away any other wildlife in the area.It is the first snake we have seen because two days ago the croc trip man said we had missed a python strangling a flying fox which the other trip had seen early in the day.
We are now into farming land and different sorts of snakes live here. Most of which I don't want to meet. The same goes for the spiders that bite! However the stick insects are a different story.
We ended the day at Millstream Falls which was a lovely place with a path down to the falls and the river which looked stunning in the evening light.
We called into Ravenshoe, the highest town in the Tablelands at 930 metres above sea level, for a cup of tea before working our way back to the motel.
We have found that these small country towns are rather lacking in dinning place unless you go for KFC or MacDonalds. I am sure there are nice places but you need local knowledge to find them. Our motel has provided a reasonable meal both nights we have been here but we have exhausted the menu for veggie options so we are moving on for our last two nights in the Tablelands.

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