Lake Eacham / Tableland (12th - 15th October 2018)

After a 90-minute flight from Alice Springs to Cairns, we landed at 2:30 PM in hot and humid weather.

Cairns is a medium-sized city in tropical northern Queensland, Australia, located by the sea and serving as the gateway to the famous Great Barrier Reef.

There, we picked up our rental car and luckily got an upgrade to a fully-equipped Mitsubishi All-Wheel-Drive SUV.

Then, we headed to our accommodation, Crater Lakes Rainforest Cottages, located in the Atherton Tablelands, about a one-hour drive from Cairns. It is secluded on the edge of a rainforest, close to Lake Eacham, and surrounded by tropical trees and bushes.

Upon arrival, we were warmly greeted by the owner with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, a generous food and breakfast basket with BBQ meat, eggs, fruits, etc., and animal feed. However, we didn't use them until the next day as we were too lazy for BBQ dinner and decided to drive a few kilometers to a restaurant.

The next day, we were awakened by various loud animal sounds from the adjacent rainforest, and behold: birds, turkeys, and tree kangaroos were already waiting on our veranda to be fed.

After breakfast, we explored the surroundings, hiking through the rainforest with waterfalls and inactive volcanic craters.

Back at our Rainforest Cottage, we fired up the grill and enjoyed the evening with delicious food and red wine.