Day 10 – Uncle Brians

Many people had recommended this tour and I was starting to think it wouldn’t live up to all the hype, but man, this was the FUNNEST day I’ve had since we landed six days ago. We spent the entire day exploring the rainforest, swimming in volcanoes, joking, laughing and singing on Gus the Wonderbus.

Uncle Brian’s is not your run of the mill sight-seeing tour. When you get on the Gus the Wonderbus you are greeted by one of the staff. In this case Cousin Brad, and as each person gets picked up they are introduced to the family so we all get to know each other’s names as we drive through Cairns.

Along the way Cousin Brad entertains us with funny local stories, and anecdotes about past tours and Gus’s romantic escapades with Vulvina the Sweedish Milk Truck and Vanessa the Ambulance. We passed by attractions such as the city dump and the last McDonald’s in Australia.

As we head west into the mountains, Cousin Brad continues talking, about the culture and personality of North Queenslanders, and we enter the friendliest town in Australia, Babinda. From there we made our first stop at The Boulders Flora and Fauna Reserve and we checked out Devil’s Pool. We walk the forest paths while Brad explains the geological history of the area and the aboriginal legends surrounding Devil’s Pool.

We saw tons of insects and Brad had told me the name of the spider I almost ran into the day before. It was the Golden Orb Weaver. It is venomous but not deadly, if you get bitten then you would just feel sick for a while (sounds great doesn’t it?). The female is huge but the male is very tiny and he hangs around the outside of the web, waiting for his chance to mate with her. If he’s not careful he will get eaten before he even comes close.

Next was Josephine Falls for another nature walk and view of the falls. Over the course of millennia Josephine falls carved itself out of pure granite, so the basin was smooth and full of grooves. We were originally supposed to climb up part way and slide down the smooth rock into the pool below but the water level was too high. We were smack dab in the middle of the rainy season and flash flooding is a common occurrance.

It was a 60 minute drive to our lunchtime destination so Cousin Brad gave us games to play and we sang songs, laughed and just enjoyed the scenery, it was a surprisingly beautiful day and we did not catch an ounce of rain.

Mr. Lunch as Brad called him, was a tall Aussie tough guy with tattoos on both arms. He ran the Milla Milla Teahouse and Inn. We stopped for a bite of emu wings, salad and home baked bread. I took the time to get to know the other people on the tour. Many were students backpacking their way through Australia and South-East Asia before starting University. Something I wish I had the opportunity to do as well. We had two Sweeds, Boris and Helen, two Aussie swim champs, Shane and Gavin, Mickey the Irish guy, George the Polish guy and Keiko the Japanese Carsick Girl. After lunch we were all one big happy family.

We travelled about 6 minutes to our next destination Milla Milla falls. Milla Milla is the most photographed waterfall in the world. And as we rounded the corner into the parking lot I could see why, it was the most beautiful waterfall I had ever seen in my life. It was picture perfect, almost fake!! I couldn’t believe it. Milla Milla is a waterfall featured in many commercials and movies like the Timotei commercial that was aired about 10 years ago. So the lot of us got off the bus and swam in the pond imitating how the woman featured in the Timotei commercial flips her hair around. It was great fun.

After a while we piled onto Gus and drove down to Lake Echam, our last stop. Lake Echam is a perfectly round lake formed many hundreds of thousands of years ago when the Tablelands region was volcanic. Echam Lake is an old volcano mouth that filled up with rainwater over many years. It is the perfect swimming hole, no crocodiles, no snakes, no jellyfish, the water is warm and there’s a perfect tree to jump off of.

The sun was setting and we headed back to Cairns, Everyone on the bus was the best of friends now so we sang and acted like children the whole way back. It was perfect day for someone like me that is a child at heart.