|
|
| Day 10: November 9 -
Eungella to Airlie Beach |
|
|
| |
We woke up early this morning to get an extra hike in. Early was not a problem -
around 4:45AM there was a tremendously load croaking/chirping coming from a frog. It was so loud that it sounded like it was in bed with
us. Howard went to the window to try to find it but it hopped (we presume) away before he saw it.
The first hike was an easy one. Carrie, Ellen and
Howard followed the Pine Circuit to the Cedar Circuit
to Sky Window. All told it was around 3.5km. A nice
warmup. The rainforest was basically waking up when
we started our hike and we heard the sounds of hundreds
of birds. The only ones we could see were a few
ground finches. Howard's quest to see the whip bird
continues. About halfway through, we came to the
tree arch which is an old cedar that has been consumed
by a fig and the fig killed off the cedar. As the
cedar rotted away an arch was formed.
The hike ended at Sky Window which is an overlook
into the valley. From here we learned that Eungella
is pronounced Doon-ge-la which is from the Aboriginal
and means cloud forest. This name became obvious
when we looked on the valley and were at the same
level as the clouds.
Amanda picked us up at Sky Window and we joined
everyone for breakfast. Following "brekkie" we piled
into the van for a short ride to Finch Hatton Gorge.
The plan was to hike to Araluen Falls, but that
trail was closed. We opted to take the longer walk
to the next falls (Devil's Head). It was only 1km
further, but it was all stairs. Howard and Grant
kept ducking off the path to shoot pictures of the
small waterfalls. When we reached the head, there
was a pool to swim in. No one had cozzies so we
just chilled and dipped our toes. Grant noticed
a freshwater eel poking his head out from under
the rocks and we watched it for a while.
After lunch at the head of the trail, we piled into
the van for a 2 hour ride to Airlie Beach. When
we arrived, we checked in with the dive company
and then split up to explore town. It's a backpacker's
town - lots of cheap accommodations and liquor.
They had a nice public lagoon off the beach that
people played in.
Soon enough it was time to board the boat and head to the reef. There were 29 people on the boat not including the skipper, deckhand, chef,
asst/training chef, dive coordinator (Steve), and 2 dice instructors. By 10PM we were on our way 51 nautical miles away to the outer reef. |
| |
On the way to Sky Window |
Eungella valley |
| |
Finch Hatten 1 |
Finch Hatten 2 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|