Uncle Brian's

Tuesday June 23
After our long day on the reef, Caitlin and I fell asleep before 9 o'clock. Party animals! We had to be up early yet again, because today we went on a tour of the Atherton Tablelands, the tropical rain forests of the far north. We went with a group recommended to me by my friend Clare, and it turned out to be awesome.
There were about 20 of us on "Gus the Wonder Bus" with our tour guide Cousin Rohan (sounds like Roe'n). It was a little cheesy, but everyone in the group got pretty into it so it ended up being a lot of fun.

We headed north out of Cairns and made a stop in Balina which has the "golden gum boot" award for being

the wettest town in Queensland, with an average rainfall of 3.5-4 meters a year! We went on a short hike to the Devil's Pool and saw some lovely but treacherous waterfalls and heard the Dreamtime story of lost lovers and a siren calling young men in and drowning them. In the last 17 years they've been keeping track, 18 guys have drowned in the river, so there may be something to that.After visiting Balina we headed to Josephine Falls which has a natural water slide where the water comes down over a smooth rock. You can climb to the top and slide down any which way and get dumped into a clear pool below. It was beautiful and very "refreshing" aka freezing. Not everyone was brave enough to get in, but it was well worth it!

We had lunch at the Falls Tea House with Mr. and Mrs. Lunch and heard stories

about Gus' love affairs with an ambulance named Vanessa and a milk truck called Volveena. Like I said, cheesy but funny. Rohan told us about Millaa Millaa falls, our next stop. It is famous for some cheesy pop singer's video back drop (I didn't know who he was, but I guess he just split up with the model Jordan?) and how it is the setting for the Timotei shampoo adverts- I think Herbal Essence in the States- with the woman flipping her hair and a rainbow arc of water coming off. So Rohan gave us tips on how to get the full Timotei look.

The falls were stunning. You could swim behind them and sit on rocks and look back through them and up to the top. It was sunny out, but the water was Very Refreshing aka super freezing. We all did the Timotei hair, even the guys, and Rohan took expert pictures. Even after all the waterfalls I've seen out here, this one was still very impressive.

We stopped at a lake about 20min away called Eachum. It is one of two volcanic craters or Marrs, and in aerial photos you can really tell- they kind of look like moon craters. The water was very still and the sun was low enough to make it look like glass and reflect the trees and sky into it really clearly. It was lovely, and the water was warmer than the other places, but still pretty cold. We saw some saw shelled turtles which have the distinction of being able to breathe out of their bottoms which is very weird and pretty cool. We had afternoon tea (what a great tradition) and then headed up to the river to look for platypus.

Rohan gave us some good info on the platypus, which is one of the most unusual animals. It is an egg laying mammal, and one of two species of monotreme (the other being the echidna). Monotreme means "one hole" so it pees, poos, and reproduces with the same hole. Weird. The platypus in Queensland are very small- they only get to be about a foot long, and are very shy. We watched for a while with no success, and just as we were getting ready to leave I spotted one below the bridge! It came up a couple of times and we had a good view of it- much better than the glimpses I got near the Jenolan Caves. It was very small and very cute. Apparently 93% of Australians have never seen platypus, so we were pretty lucky.On the ride back we all sang songs and danced around the bus. It was ridiculous but really good fun. Uncle Brian's was a good way to go!