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Published: June 24th 2009
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Atherton Tablelands
The view from the top of the Great Dividing Range approaching the Atherton Tablelands Still feeling damp from the rainforest, we drove southwest into the Atherton Tablelands to Lake Eacham National Park. The sun decided to come out slightly so we could see into the clear deep lake that was once the site of a massive volcanic eruption. All geographic formations in Australia are super old, so it isn't often very easy to see how some land formations are formed. This lake isn't one of them. It is almost perfectly circular... like a science project volcano filled with Diet Coke and Mentos. We decided to save the walk around Echam for later and search for a place to spend the night. It didn't take long to find the campsite/hobby farm about 500 meters away from the national park.
The camp we decided to stay at really reminded us of our old tree planting days. We tried to explore the whole farm... but made the mistake of trying to explore with a cheese sandwich in our hands. We were promptly chased away by starving giant duck-geese. Scary stuff! Ditched part of the sandwich as a decoy and ran for cover to a fairly well established kitchen with a huge rock fireplace and tin walls. We
Atherton Tablelands
Janis enjoying the view were happy to have the opportunity to dry out all of our moulding clothing. We learned how to cut up hardwood with an axe. You can't split this stuff down the center. It must be chipped away from the edges until you have burnable sized pieces. I got the fire going while Alex fetched our wet stuff and we played chess as our boots steamed.
We got started super early the next morning - less by choice than by an insistant rooster- and went for a walk around Lake Echam. The rain held off for the entire 3 kilometer walk around the lake. We learned that it was once a millitary officer retreat, the rainforest had mostly taken over, but we could see the scars made by relativly recent abandonment. About three quarters of the way around the lake I thought I heard somthing large-ish skulking through the bush. I sent Alex in to investigate and the poor fellow ended up getting stung by some unidentifiable leaf that left his finger stinging for about two days.
After walking around the lake we started the waterfall drive that everyone told us we couldn't miss. There was supposed to be
Lake Eacham
The perfectly circular volcanic crater lake over eleven waterfalls along this one section of road. Alex and I were only able to find three. However, the ones we did locate (Milla Milla, Tillee, and Ellinjua) were beautiful. It would have been great to be able to swim in one of the pools but the weather wasn't up to snuff.
Once we realized we weren't going to find any more falls we headed back for the coast. We found a few fruit and veg stands along the way and bought loads. We got paw paw's for a dollar each, custard apples and avocados among other more traditional/recognisable foods. Towards the end of the day we were pretty tired so we didn't waste any time in finding a campsite on Kurrimine beach to eat our fruits and refresh for the next leg of the trip.
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