Day 53: Lake Eacham

Big Richard has been studying the map, talking to locals and other travellers. The day is planned and there is a lot to do today. First stop, look for a platypus in Petersons Creek. After 45 minutes of looking, not one platpus to be seen but 3 water snakes were spotted.

Next stop, Curtain Fig Tree. O.M.G !!!!!!, this tree is big, have a look for yourselves.

This tree started as a seed on a branch in another large tree and sent down aerial roots to the ground. The host tree then fell over against anpther tree where the aerial roots continued to find their way to the ground and the fig tree growing upwards. Eventually the two host trees have decayed away leaving only this massive fig.

Well next on the agenda was to have a BBQ lunch and swim at Lake Eacham, a crater lake formed by an eruption of volcanic gases rather than lava. It is only a small lake but apparently 65m deep. It may not show in the photo but it is a beautiful torquoise bluey colour and even better there are no crocs. We had a ball doing bombs off the pontoon, with dad throwing Bridgy like a cannon ball.

After the swimming we checked out another lake, Lake Barrine which had two massive twin Bull Kauri Pines - 45m high.

Continuing on our day of big trees next was the Cathedral Fig Tree. See Mum and kids actually inside the root system and the base of the tree.

Lastly we tried but failed to find some giant red cedars, instead we just got lost in some national park somewhere. So it was back to camp. Tonight the kids had heaps of fun playing with some other kids who were also travelling with their mum in a station wagon on a very similar route to us (gutsy).

Penny & Richard