A&A's Auzzy Adventure - Day 12

On day 12 we left our YHA accommodation in Cairns and picked up our hire car before heading south west towards the Atherton Tablelands. After traveling along the Gillies Highway and climbing up the plateau we leveled off about 1,000m above sea level.

The views on the way up the mountain were spectacular (above), but it was more amazing when we finally arrived at the top to see that we were on a level plateau! Having an interest in volcanoes, the first place we headed was the Lake Tinaroo - an old volcanic lake. It wasn't quite as exciting as we expected, so we quickly headed off to the nearest town, Yungaburra for a swift lunch.

Straight after lunch we drove to a giant tree called the Curtain Fig Tree which was a pretty amazing sight! The were branches dropping down from all sides - it was massive!

We then drove to Lake Eacham were we walked all the way around the 3km circ crater lake. It was a great walk through our first taste of the tropical rainforest and we heard and saw lots of wildlife.

We even managed to spot a turtle in the water watching us as we walked past!!

After spending half the afternoon walking around the lake and feeling like it would never end we drove to our accommodation for the next few days - a lovely chalet right next to Malanda falls. In the evening, as the sun was starting to set we drove cross-country past a huge crater (below) to another crater called Mt Hypipamee Crater.

We really didn't know what to expect, just that it was supposed to be spectacular! Walking through the rain forest for the second time in a day, we finally got to the crater and were amazed to see a massive hole in the ground with a sheer drop on each side! We stayed at the crater for a while and watched a few parrots and cockatoos flying around before making the trip to a waterfall nearby.

As we were walking along the path to the waterfall we stopped in our tracks to see a huge 5 foot bird called a Cassowary. Not knowing exactly what to do, I did what came naturally and quickly got out both the digi-cam and the the camcorder! Crouching down I managed to get within 10ft of the giant bird as it just stood there staring at us. After taking the pictures we were a little unsure what to do as the bird was standing right in the middle of the path that we were trying to walk down! We slowly walked towards it, and as we got closer it kindly moved to the side of the path for us - but we were still within 2ft of the thing!! IT WAS HUGE!!

Arriving back at the car we noticed a warning sign all about the the cassowary!! Apparently they are extremely dangerous and should never be approached (!!) - they can get very aggressive and run at you, jump up in the air, and then kick with both of their giant clawed feed!! Scary stuff! I think we were very lucky that we caught Mrs Cassowary on a good day!!