In Millaa Millaa this morning there was a glimpse of a blue clear sky, but the clouds arrived and the rest of the day was heavy cloud but fine.
Winter has arrived – we have pulled out the winter clothing.
Below in yellow is our day trip today and the green was our route yesterday into Millaa Millaa
The total kilometres of the day trip was 120 kms. I am surprised by how close all these towns are.
Before heading off, I walked to the back of our camp site where there is a little rain forest border.
This section of the park is the rain forest camping area.
I was extremely lucky to see and photograph this Boatbill which is listed as uncommon – so that was a great start and right near our camp.
This is all the blue sky for today.
We can hear the Eastern Whip Birds and I saw them moving through a couple of times. For years I used to look up into the branches to try and see them, only to discover that they are mostly only about two feet off the ground in the undergrowth.
A Grey Headed Robin – another one of the robins to tick off.
This is my mystery bird, I still can’t figure out what it is. It acted and looks like a Olive Whistler – but they don’t occur in this area. Back to the bird book on that one or the internet.
Above is Millaa Millaa waterfall, apparently it is the most photographed waterfall in Australia.
It didn’t take long, after today’s trip, we have seen 6 waterfalls and are already over it.
We haven’t seen a tree kangaroo in the area yet. I have seen them at Fleay’s Wildlife Sanctuary but it will be special to see one in the wild.
Zillie Falls and a close up of the ginger in flower at the base of the falls - (under the tree – to the left in the photo of the water flow)
Flowers on tree trunks
Cauliflory - well that’s a new word. It is the name for the flowers that appear on the trunks of some rainforest trees.
We have seen it on figs in Lawn Hill National Park and today have seen it on two other trees on which it occurs, the Yellow Mahogany and Bumpy Satin Ash. Totally amazing !
Next waterfall is Ellinjaa - on the waterfall circuit
I took a series of photos of this little bird (another look up one for me), but liked this one the best as he sat there for ages and wondering what to do next. It was like “I’m bored” -
The circuit begins and ends in Millaa Millaa, so we enjoyed lunch in the park in the main street. We were rugged up, but a lot of people were cold because they had dressed for a fine sunny day and looked decidedly uncomfortable.
We then headed up to Malanda, below is street art outside a coffee shop, art gallery, and museum complex near the Dairy Farmers Factory.
Inside was really well done as well, telling the story of the dairy industry and the Americans based here in WW2
All the milk from the area supplies the north and west of Australia, making it the longest milk run
Still more water falls – this the the Malanda Water Fall which has a large swimming pool at the base. The main attraction is that it is croc free.
The view to both ends of the pool. It would be very popular during the hot summer.
The information centre was nearby and we got some great tips on spotting tree kangaroos and where to see Cassowary.
Our next stop on the way to Ravenshoe is Mt Hypipamee National Park to visit the crater and Dinner Falls
The other Cauliflory tree with the explanation.
The crater is almost 70 m across with sheer granite walls (the surface rock through which the gas exploded). Fifty-eight metres below the rim is a lake over 70 m deep, with native waterweed. It was interesting that the lake isn’t straight down but is a elbow shape.
We didn’t take the walk to Dinner Falls – just more water flowing over rocks - We are getting fussy now with the abundance of the falls available and starting to realize that a water fall can be as low as 4 metres etc.
The day is getting along and we head off to Ravenshoe. The road from Undara almost bypasses the town and we didn’t stop on our way to Millaa Millaa yesterday so we plan to see the town today.
I think you will all know that it is Ravens hoe and isn’t Raven shoe. I wasn’t game to test the second one, as I am sure that the residents would be highly volatile and the joke would backfire.
The highest hotel in Australia is the claim to fame by the Ravenshoe Hotel
Glen was not amused by the cowboy fix of the carved log. The log is splitting on the left hand end and their fix was a bit of strapping around the end. Wonder what the artist would have thought?
Queens Wreath, it has several common names – I know it as Sandpaper Vine – it isn’t native but comes from Mexico. It attracts bees and butterflies and two of these vines were on verandah posts of the art gallery in Ravenshoe.
We took the main road back to Millaa Millaa past the wind farm which made us realize how scenic the Misty Mountains route of yesterday was.
Take note of your photo of the bridge to The Crater - then picture about 20 of us unable to cross back over due to a manic cassowary keeping all of at bay! Very scary indeed! Had to wait at least 20 mins until he calmed down and went down underneath the walkway!
ReplyDelete