Tablelands and back to Cairns

Hello everyone, how are you doing?

We're doing great! We're enjoying some quality time together at last. I'm not sure if I can speak for both of us, but I really missed having a bit of privacy every now and then, not just in bed at night. It's been refreshing. Anyway, we've decided to make the most of the remaining time we're waiting for travelmates and have gone to the highlands. We had a leisurely start this morning, slept in and had a good breakfast so that we could be energized to visit the three waterfalls here. The Millaa-Millaa Falls, Zillie Falls, and Elinja Falls (or something like that). I liked the Milla Falls the most, I think Timo liked the Zillie Falls the most. They were definitely the most adventurous haha, the path that led to the foot of the falls was only partially there, so we had to find our own way through the muddy undergrowth because Timo absolutely wanted to walk down. When we finally reached the bottom, the view of the waterfall was mediocre, which is why Timo climbed further over rocks and such. Well, I had enough, flip flops aren't my first choice for scrambling on slippery rocks, but yes, stubborn. Apparently, the view from there was at least satisfying, so I had to act as the photographer. Meanwhile, I was attacked by two thumb-sized black spiders that conquered my leg. As a result, Timo's pictures turned out interesting. The Milla-Milla Falls were the first ones we visited, actually we wanted to swim here because a big school class had taken over the water, but we decided to come back later to swim. Well, that didn't happen, later in the shade the water was so cold that I couldn't go any further than knee-deep. It just wasn't possible. Brrrr, well, it didn't go as planned, but still a beautiful day! We spent the evening cleaning our tent and equipment. At least until our old Whitsundays friends Maxi and Louis parked their camper right next to our car. Haha, what a coincidence, we were thrilled! So thrilled that the neighboring camper (an old lady) stepped out of her Whomi and loudly announced that if we weren't quiet tonight, she would call the police. Hahaha, yeah, I wouldn't want your house next to mine, Granny. However, we survived the night without the police, and started the day in a good mood. We spent the morning cruising around with the two of them. We visited a very interesting tree on the way to Cairns. Well, it may sound boring, but it was really impressive, the good old fig tree that's over 500 years old. However, it's not a fig tree like Manie from Italy knows, this fig tree starts growing as a parasite on another tree. And everything grows towards the ground first, until a branch touches the ground and roots there, more and more such above-ground roots start growing towards the ground and slowly takes over the host tree. So, you have to imagine this old fig tree as a structure made up of many individual trunks that together form a huge crown. You should definitely check out the pictures. After the tree, our paths separated from the other two, as Tomke and I still had a lot to do before heading to the Outback on Wednesday, and the two of them didn't want to stay in the same hostel as us anyway. And when we walked into the hostel room, guess who was in our room? Haha, another coincidence. Oh well, we spent a legendary evening with them, pre-drinking in the car in pouring rain in a parking lot. And well, we never made it to the club that night. Or well, we made it to the club, just not inside, because it was closed. Well, Maxi and I ended up at the kebab place around the corner, and the two boys stumbled back to the hostel. Well, the next day was accordingly lazy, and then on Wednesday morning we set off for Townsville where the road to Alice Springs begins. But before we started our long journey, we picked up Amy, our new Dutch travel companion, and met John for a few hours in Townsville. And then on the evening of the 10th of July, we ventured the first few kilometers forward on the road of roads into the Outback.

See you in the Outback Blog, XO

(PS. Pictures will follow as soon as I have time to transfer them to my phone, sorry about that)