Last night was a funny nights sleep as I woke up twice in the night desperately needing the toilet, something completely unusual for me. Despite this I still managed to get a good nights sleep in my 4 bed dorm with the others, aided by the nice breeze coming in from the open window. I think for the first time in Australia I was keeping cool through the natural elements, all be it I was high above sea level! Breakfast this morning was toast with preserves and cereal on an all you can eat basis, something I made the most out of!
Today had another busy days of activities planned, this time on a more physical basis. First stop of the day was the Curtain Fig Tree, like the one from yesterday but formed completely differently. This one used to be four trees but the vines strangled the trees and over many years formed another formation of tangled vines. You could see where one of the host trees was as the roots were exposed and it was lying on its side going into the vines!
Whilst we were here our new guide told us about how he was stung by a stinger plant a few years back, and that he can still feel the pain today when suddenly entering cold water or something! We were also shown these blue berry like things called bush ginger which we were allowed to try. When peeling away the skin this sour assortment of seeds was left behind. It wasn't delicious but edible lets say!
Once leaving here, the next stop was the Eacham roadhouse where we got ready for a bike ride over the tablelands. Due to the recent rainfall we were only allowed to cycle on the roads as the mountain biking tracks were closed to prevent erosion. The thing we had to be careful with on the roads were the hanging vines with the prickles we were shown yesterday, which apparently if caught on us could potentially take us off our bikes! I nearly became a victim of this when cycling to our first stop Lake Eacham, but luckily I just brushed it with my hand.
Continuing through the light rains we passed through lush green countryside, stopping every so often for rest stops. The girls in my group couldn't manage the hills, and I was pretty smug with myself when tanking it up the biggest hill of the day from the back, passing each person as they gave up! Some of the features en route included this old bus shelter which had been damaged in a cyclone, and this distinctive sign which had pictures of four Australian animals on including the legendary cassowary which can apparently run 50mph through the rainforest, as well as holding the title of the deadliest bird in the world!
By now it started raining a little more heavily, although our guide took us for a walk through a more less commercialised area of rainforest unlike the signposted one from yesterday. The dense canopy above acted as a really good shelter from the rain, although the paths were really slippery and muddy as we dodged the vines and clambered round fallen trees to Vision Falls, another impressive yet secluded waterfall. From here we hopped from rock to rock to another waterfall which we had to walk behind due to the high rainfall recently submerging the stepping stones. After getting a soaking and picture holding the vines by the waterfall, it was back round past this murky swimming hole before heading back to the bikes.
One thing I haven't mentioned about the rainforest is the leaches which were constantly getting themselves onto my legs somehow. When returning to the bikes I found one which when I removed made me bleed! Another nice thing was the fact we could feel many of the leaves whilst walking through which had so many weird textures. Before long we were back to cycling in the pouring rain, shortly arriving back to the roadhouse for lunch. I opted for fish and chips here and the portion was massive! I really miss proper English chip shop chips though!
After a short trip back to the hostel, the next stop of the day was the Allumbah Pocket where we saw this old swimming creek as well as a massive spider! We also tried looking for platypus here although the rain made it difficult to see any potential movement in the water. A short transfer from the creek, we got ready to go canoeing through the rainforest on a search for wildlife. When leaving however the rain turned into something ridiculously heavy, but we carried on in good spirits! We were basically canoeing in Lake Tinaroo which was formed through a dam in 1959. Apparently underneath the lake there is a small town still with cars and housing which was flooded to build the dam.
I won't go into much detail about the actual canoe trip through the rainforest, other than fact we got very wet. In terms of wildlife the best we saw were water dragons and ducks! It was typical that when returning however the sun came out, although when returning to the hostel we were like drowned rats! It was nice though that we were able to use the showers and dry off here before our lift back to Cairns. It wasn't long before todays day trip people arrived for afternoon tea like us yesterday, and from here we boarded the bus back.
On the way back the driver played lots of dance music, a different approach to our driver yesterday who played songs relevant to the situation we were in! Before long we completed the 237 turns back to the coast road, and by around half 7 it was finally back to Cairns after an exhausting few days. It was nice for a doorstep drop off here as well as the rain was torrential by this point. No word of lie, when checking into my room the path was flooded and I had to paddle in! There was even thunder at times.
The evening was spent in the common room in the end, although I eventually abandoned in the end as my phone was dieing, and I stayed in my room from here to avoid getting wet. I had another one of them weird moments here as well as when trying to write my blog I simply fell asleep! If you're wondering about dinner it was simply not worth going outside in the rain for supplies, it was that bad!
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