Sunday, November 18 Lake Eacham Campground to Wooroonooran NP – Rain and Falls

Saying our goodbyes

     We had hung out together as long as we could, but Chris and Amy had 10 days to cover the eastern portion of Australia all the way to Sydney, a distance we've got nearly a month to see before Ryan arrives, so we knew it was time to say goodbye. I made the Aussie Brekky for all of us, C&A substituting tortillas for bread and salsa for vegemite, (argh, don't you hate it when people break with tradition?), they packed up, and we parted, trying not to draw out the goodbyes for too long. After all, we'll be seeing them again in five months.

Playing in the water

     Diana and I drove up to Eacham Lake, actually a volcanic blowout crater that has filled with water and is a favorite swimming hole for the locals.

Jumping into a crater lake

     We then drove into Yungaburra to get another chance to see platypuses, and were lucky to see one busy fellow feeding in the cloudy water.

Better view of a platypus

Busy waters

The Big Fig

     Our next stop was the 'Curtain Fig Tree'. Most Australian fig trees are called stranglers because when the seeds that drop up in host trees begin to grow they send roots down to the ground that slowly expand until they completely engulf the other tree. Usually the host tree dies, leaving the fig tree alone in the forest. The Curtain Fig Tree had grown up over a large tree that was leaning to the side, then when that tree died it started growing straight up. Anyways, it's a startling sight to take the short walk through the forest and come upon the monster.

A really big fig tree

     We stopped at Malandra Falls for a lunch of cashews and apples and to get off the road as a storm built up. Within minutes it seemed as if a hurricane was blowing through, with leaves and small branches and other debris flying down the road in torrential rain. I was glad we were parked and not trying to navigate the twisty mountain roads. Several minutes later the storm passed, just about the time we finished our nuts, and we moved on.

Clouds over the Tablelands

     We finished the driving day visiting a couple nice waterfalls on the Millaa Millaa falls loop road.

     At the Wooroonooran NP campground we had squaw rice and almost felt like we were back in Columbus on a Saturday night, with a group of local kids whooping it up until nearly five in the morning. At first light, before they had even gotten to bed, I heard one boy say to a girl, “Didn't we have a great time last night?”, and it truly sounded more like a question than a statement.