Cairns, Australia

Our second tour in Cairns was with On the wallaby tours (parent company to Uncle Brians from yesterday) and headed south to Atherton tablelands to see waterfalls and rainforests.
A smaller group than yesterday only 7 of us (yesterday was 13) but we got a chance to chat to everyone and was very chilled day. For our first stop, Joey our tour guide, took us round the local area to see some wild wallabies - they hang around lots of schools and he mentioned seeing them whenever he went to school! We then headed up high and to lots of twisty roads to a lookout stop at Heales lookout and the views were incredible of the hills. We reached the rainforest and inside was an incredible fig tree called "Cathedral fig tree" It reminded us a lot of the tree sculptures we saw in Singapore's Garden's by the bay. Joey mentioned this was a tree James Cameron took as inspiration for Avatar and you can see why, they look like something from a sci fi film. We drove through the rainforest, which was so strange as it was just like the British countryside! Next we visited 2 crator lakes first was Lake Barrine (where we just had a look at) and then into another part of the rainforest where we learnt all about the plants there and was really interesting. Joey showed us "wait a while" which is a hanging plant with tiny, bit very sharp hooks that can rip your skin very easily! and also stinging nettles which like the ones at home sting you if you brush up against them but these ones inject toxins into you with tiny needles and the burning pain is horrendous. The effects (although not as bad as when it happens) may last up to 12 months!! After our informative bushwalk we went to the other crater lake - Lake Eacham. This lake was beautiful so green and full of creatures. There were turtles, tiny fish, pelicans and other birds and.... a crocodile! Our tour guide mentioned there is ONE very small crocodile that inhibits this lake but could not cause you any real harm that's why they let it stay in the area. regardless we had a very lovely swim in the lake! After lunch was to the famous Milla Milla waterfall. This waterfall is where they shot the Herbal esscences adverts where they do the hair flicking (so naturally every tourist does the hair flick in the waterfall) and also Peter Andre recorded his pop video to mysterious girl. The waterfall was extremely cold but we all had fun doing the hair flicks in the water. To finish off we had another swim in a smaller waterfall then a cuppa tea and fruit platter in a lodge to rest after a great day.