Atherton Tablelands

The sun was still rising as we readied ourselves to tour the Atherton Tablelands, so named as its farms feed the dinner tables of northern Queensland. However it's interest for us was its rainforests, wildlife and waterfalls. After meeting our driver guide, Josh, and an international collective of fellow travellers we headed out to the forested hillsides surrounding Cairns and the valley it lies within. Leaving urban clutter behind, our old bus (650,000+ kms on the clock) revved its way up narrow switch back roads to ascend over the hills and onto the Tablelands' plateau.

Our first stop was at Lake Eacham, encircled by rainforest and covered by clear sky, the greens and blue reflecting turquoise on the glass surface. Walking out of the forest shade, along the cool metal walkway of a pontoon we took turns to jump out into the light and crash down into the cool water. Now fully awake we swam and kept afloat around the pontoon whilst trying to see our feet and the lake bed through the cloudy depths.

Back on land we ate juicy kiwi fruit and melon whilst watching turtles leisurely glide under the surface of the shallows. When asked about temperatures of the water that we would be swimming in during the day, Josh explained that whilst he could give degrees these meant little to most people. Instead he advised of the 'nipple test' where the temperatures were graded between 1 (the ever warm waters of the Great Barrier Reef) and 10 (a winter's swim in the North Sea). Whilst the swim at Lake Eacham had been a 2-3, our next swim at the Dinner Falls was to be a 4.

After dipping her toe into the dark shaded pool at our next stop, Dinner Falls, Kim wisely chose to not dive in. However Alex could not be deterred and took his turn on the rock to jump out. The gasps and faces of the other divers should have told him and Alex's face as he swam back out of the water read something higher than '4'. Rainbow colours shimmered above the spray as we moved across the rock shelf to where sunlight sneaked its way through the rainforest canopy. The water current flowed silently past until it reached the tipping point of a further drop, where it turned white and crashed forward out of sight.

Warmer and drier we left the rainforest and drove out along Queensland's highest roads to take lunch upon Crawford’s Lookout, where a panorama of forest and farmland spread out before us. Afterwards we went to Millaa Millaa Falls, the scenery for both Peter Andre's music video 'Mysterious Girl' and the Herbal Essences shampoo adverts. At Millaa Millaa the water pours out a cliff face of hanging vines, 20 metres above a shallow pool, creating a postcard waterfall image. Inching our way out across the slippery unseen rocks of the shallows, the cold waters eventually deepened for us to back stroke our way to the base of the falls where the water slapped down. Swimming through the current and under the spray we emerged on the rocks behind the cascading water. Rainbows flickered under the projection of water and light as we shouted to hear each other over the din.

Our last stop for the day was at Josephine Falls where we were able to use the rock face’s smooth incline as a natural water slide down the bottom section of the falls. Diving out into the (once again) cold waters of the pool we swam against the current to crawl up slimy rocks to the top of nature’s water slide. From there it was down on our backsides, whooping and yelling with legs and arms splayed as we flew into the frothing white waters.

Hot drinks and sugar helped our bodies recover from the fourth helping of body shock but we were elated by our time in the Tablelands. Hillsides became silhouettes against the changing shades of dusk and the eventual darkness pierced by the glowering lights of sugar cane fires, the sweet smell wafting through the bus.Read more