After heavy rain all through the night (to be expected in a rainforest) we had a bit of a lull in the weather during our outdoor breakfast. Watching the birds and wildlife scampering around on the grass. The accommodation manager was telling us what to look out for on our day's travels and told us to look out for tree climbing wallabies!
Once we'd clarified that it wasn't April Fool's Day we discovered that he was referring to a Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo so we had our eyes peeled. Especially when we saw the warning signs.
Then it was time to pack up and head off inland to Atherton Tablelands where we'd been told to expect cooler weather (low 20s instead of low 30s). In order to get there we took the road to Innisfail which has bananas plants on both sides. Who knew Australia was known for it's bananas? We didn't! And then on the road in there were road markers to show the length of the Innisfail Guinness World Record for a banana split. It was 8040m (about 5 miles long)!
With the rain returning we gave the walks to waterfalls a miss as most were a good 45 minutes walk. We didn't fancy getting soaked. This was Serendipity Falls which is right on the side of the road with a convenient place to park. I could quickly leap out of the car for this photo opportunity.
The mist was descending by this point so any thoughts of going to Millaa Millaa lookout were dashed as we could hardly see up the road. I don't think the view would've been up to much.
It seemed like a good time to stop and 'Barista in the Mist' seemed an apt place. Today we tried a raspberry, white chocolate and macadamia muffin - going to miss all these lovely concoctions when we get home.
Mount Hipipamee crater was our next stop. By this time it was only a mistake in the air with a well tree covered walkway there. It was formed as a result of a volcanic gas blowhole creating a 170m pipe shaped hole. Scientists have discovered that it has it's own ecosystem, bacyeria and shrimp species in the bottom.
We were intrigued by the many caterpillar trains crawling along the floor and fencing. They kept us captivated for a while as we were intrigued to find out what happened when 2 trains met in the middle - it was a bit like a motorway contraflow as the caterpillars from the small train merged with the other.
Time for a group photo - I don't think Ian was impressed by my short walks in the 'I don't think it's raining' rain. 😄.
Nect stop was to see a rare curtain fighting tree. We'd never heard of one.
This is how it was formed.
Last stop before looking for our accommodation was at the Platypus viewing platform in Yungaburra. Amy and I saw something but as it was 3pm it was probably a bit too early as they're nocturnal. We returned later on in the evening to see if we could get a better sighting but no luck. Just saw fireflies and bats and heard the frogs.
Tomorrow we're off to Port Douglas - keeping an eye on the weather forecast. Looks like the cyclone is going to miss us. Fingers crossed!
No comments:
Post a Comment