Day 64

Today I conquered my fears!  Specifically, the fears of drowning, speeding up windy mountain roads, and falling from great heights.  I feel triumphant and euphoric and extremely sleepy.

We drove up to the Atherton Tablelands at 11am, so it was nice and warm.  Until we got up the mountain, anyway, because then it was pretty chilly.  The road up the mountains was... fun?  Is that the right word for being tossed around a car?  I think it is.

This is Greg.  He is a very fast driver.  (We are stopped here because part of the road fell off the mountain.)

My face for 90% of the car ride.

The drive was also very beautiful!  The view from the mountains is amazing, because what do you find around mountains?  More mountains!

Pictures really can't capture it!

Checking out mountains.

This is Greg's truck.  It's very comfy and roomy!
(Thank goodness for that because the person in the middle got thrown around like a rag doll.)

Our first stop was a rope swing behind a neighborhood.  The swing consisted of bicycle handlebars attached to a rope.  In order to swing, you had to climb up a small cliff by hanging onto roots from the fig tree above, then have someone throw the rope up to you.

It was terrifying.

Sadly, Taylor can't figure out how to use a camera and I don't have a video of either of my two swings. (That's right, I did it twice.  Although the second time I forgot to let go of the rope, swung backwards, hit/kicked off a tree, and then finally made it into the water.  Phew.)  However, I do have some photos and a video of Greg making the jump:

Up in the right-hand corner, you'll see Kanoe trying to convince me to actually jump with this jury-rigged death trap.

This is one of the most terrifying things I have ever done.  (Yes, that's me, airborne.  Not very graceful, I'm afraid.)

Rachel's face basically sums up the rope swing experience.
(This is my favourite photo of the day.)

And now for a very short video:

After conquering our collective fear of heights (except for Taylor who refused to swing and is a wimp) we hopped back in the car and found an incredible fig tree!  This is the Cathedral Fig Tree.

That's me, at the base of the HUGE fig tree.

If you look carefully, you'll see me toward the bottom center-left and Kanoe (who might be half-monkey) front and center.

Kanoe in his happy place.

Taylor got a bit stuck.

Descending from the tree.

After monkeying around in the tree for a bit we drove to a few crater lakes, which are freshwater lakes formed in old volcanic craters on the tops of mountains.  They are very, very cold.  We skipped by the first one, Lake Barrine (I think) because it didn't look good for swimming.  The next one, Lake Eacham, was much cleaner.  The water was so 'fresh' that it was a bit difficult to stay afloat in there.  Here's my skewed attempt at a panorama:

Click to make me bigger!

Next we drove to a little old-fashioned town called Malanda for meat pies and beer, where we learned about a site to see tree kangaroos.  But that was for later, because waterfalls were next on the agenda.  First up on the waterfall loop was Millaa Millaa Falls, which was arguably the best of the three we visited.  It was big, beautiful, and absolutely ice-cold.

So pretty... but so cold.  

According to the website, Millaa Millaa Falls is 18.3 meters tall, which is about 60 feet.  When we got there nobody was in the water, which was lucky.  Apparently we were the only people stupid enough to actually think getting in was a good idea.  But per usual, once one person got in so did the rest, and soon the waterfall was crawling with people as stupid and masochistic as our group.  It was so cold that my muscles began to cramp up.  It was unholy cold.  But the waterfall was really pretty, so I guess it was worth it!

Next was Zillie Falls, rumoured to be named after the daughter of an Aboriginal tribe leader.  It was pretty difficult to get to, especially in flip-flops.  Flip-flops are also called 'slippers' and 'thongs' here, because in Australia 'thongs' are footwear but 'thong' refers to the underwear.  And apparently in Hawaii, what we call slippers are 'fuzzies' and what we call fuzzies are 'foozles.'  I am not sure that I actually believe any of that.

Sadly, this is not an artsy photo.  I just slipped on some rocks while taking it.

Me next to Zille Falls!

The third waterfall, Ellinjaa Falls, was nice, and much easier to access than the last one.  I didn't get any photos because I was trying to conserve battery for the tree kangaroos.

We got very lucky with the tree kangaroos because one was sitting right at the parking lot when we got there!  Plus there were already two people there, armed with insane binoculars and cameras, to help us find it.  We found a mother with her baby!  (I don't know if they're called joeys if it's not a kangaroo...) But they were adorable!  Sorry about the blurriness, it was getting dark at this point and my camera doesn't like the dark very much.

Mama tree kangaroo!

There's the baby, peeking out of mama's pouch!

He was pretty darn cute, but I wish he'd come out more!

Who wouldn't love that face.  Come on.

On our way home we saw a sign for the Curtain Fig Tree and figured, why not?  Sadly it was too dark to get any photos, and you couldn't climb this one.  It was still pretty though, so I'm glad we went.  I can't wait for the family to come and see all this stuff!  They better bring warm clothes though, it is seriously cold up on those mountains.

Lava tubes field trip this weekend!  Look forward to more pics soon!  :)

-Ash