Friday 12 July 2013

Wallaman Falls, The Pub with no Beer and Lucinda Jetty



After spending some time with friends, having full house amenities and plenty of beer, it was time to hit the road again! What better way to kick off by heading off to see Australia's largest single drop waterfall?
The drive up to Wallaman Falls itself is quite fun, up and along a windy mountain, then follow the ranges along. When we arrived it was pretty cold, we laced up our boots, I grabbed a beany and jumper and Jeni had about 5 layers. From the top you can admire the fall looking over the valley. Very impressive and quite overwhelming. Our brain has a tendency to relate everything we see to something we already know and it's not often you see something completely different that shocks you into admiration, Wallaman Falls is one of those things!

We decided to head down the track to see the waterfall from the base. It was only 2k each way and it was quite a cool day, so we just set off nice and relaxed. The trip down was pretty cruisey, until the humidity smashes you. A word of advice for those who want to do the walk, dress light, but not too light, you wont be cold, but you want to be covered up, a rare poisonous plant grows in the area and stings bad if it touches you!
The walk itself isn't the most exciting, mainly zigzagging back and forth down the hill pretty steep, but the view down the bottom makes it more than worth it! As we stood there and admired Wallaman Falls, people came, took a couple of photos and shot off back up the mountain. It is really worth staying a while and admiring the fall. As it isn't such a wide, but extremely long waterfall, a lot of the water seems to turn to mist before it reaches the bottom almost appearing as droplets turning into mini missiles and then melting away. Along the sides of the waterhole other mini waterfalls are formed purely from the mist created as it hits the rocks, some of these mini waterfall streams get blasted by the mist and the water soars back up the rocks until there is enough weight in water to fall down. Really amazing.
The walk back up was a little harder, being over dressed and drenched from the mist and humidity did it, or maybe it was the previous 2 weeks drinking too much beer? It was almost a blessing every time people approached heading down the track, giving you an excuse to pull off to the side and let them pass. Once up the top we were freezing again! We had some lunch and then cruised back down the mountain, past Trebone and back into Ingham.

As we went through Ingham Jeni noticed "The original pub with no beer", which upon closer inspection had beer! Now known as Lee's Hotel, the pub earnt it's name from having soldiers come through during the war, drinking the place dry, which inspired a poet to write a poem, which inspired Slim Dusty to write the song. The pub was far from the fanciest I've encountered, but had to drop in so if I ever hear that song played I can smugly say "I had a beer there!"

Continuing on, we weren't 100% sure where we were headed except that it would be somewhere north, which is what I love about travelling without strict deadlines! We ended up in a place called Lucinda, by a little beach, not the prettiest beach in the world, but it did house Australia's longest jetty!


- Cameron







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