Atherton Tablelands

Today we were supposed to be waterfall chasing day in the Atherton Tablelands. There are like 10 waterfalls within an hour of each other. Some are just 1/4-1/2 mile off the road, and one we had planned a big hike. (Side note—I drove! On the left! Go me! Also….I cannot believe how pretty the tablelands are. I feel like I didn’t know coming in how incredible the scenery was going to be). I wish I wasn’t driving so I could take more pics. And later in the day we were too traumatized to think about pictures. Read on…

We woke up to POURING Rain. Again. We thought it would eventually stop so we started on our journey. At the first falls, Josephine Falls, there is a fun rock waterside we were excited about.  The trail was muddy and slippery and the water was too high to get in and swim (and it was pretty cold because of the rain). We were so sad! 

So we moved to the next falls—Tchupala. It was about a 35 min drive. When we got out of the car Halle screamed “there’s a leech on my leg!” I ran over, and sure enough, a big fat leech was on her leg. And I look down and her entire sandal is filled with blood. Another one got the bottom of her foot. Josh pulled them off, we sat for a bit while she recovered and thought that was crazy she got two leeches. 

Well, we start the next little 1/2 mile hike and about 3/4 of the way through I see a leech on my shoe. And so does Josh. We brush them off and then run the rest of the way to the falls. On the way back we had to stop every single minute to check our shoes and pull them off our feet. It was soooo gross. They were everywhere. We finally made it back to the car, threw off our shoes (pulled another one off my foot) and did a thorough check. Halle had another fat one on her leg! Josh, our leech pulling hero, pulled it off and blood just poured out. She was so grossed out and a little scared. 

You’d think that was the end of it, but it gets worse. A minute or two later Halle said that her contact was bugging her. She went to check in the mirror and came out of the car screaming “there’s a leech in my eye. There’s a leech IN MY EYE!! We thought she was just being paranoid, (we were all feeling creepy crawly) so we ran over to look. And in the trough of her eye was a slimy, squirmy, LEECH. She was freaking out, I was freaking out. Rusty came over and tried to pull it out but it was attached to her eye. He had to try SEVERAL times to yank it off. She was so brave through it all. So was crying, but I’m pretty sure I would have fainted dead away. 

Halle said we are all now trauma bonded for life. Not quite the family bonding we expected. 😂

Josh said this will go down as Banks Family lore. 

Blake, who wisely did NOT go to the second waterfall said that once again, his lucky necklace protected him. 

And for your viewing pleasure, a close up picture of Australian leeches.

Later, when we were ready to laugh about it, I asked Rusty if before he had kids, if someone would have given him a list of things he’d have to do as a dad, and it included “pull a leech off your daughters eye” would he still have chosen to have kids? 😂

We had beautiful cheese boards at a local little dairy and relished in our leech free environment.  

The most famous waterfall in the area is called Millaa Millaa. It gained its fame in Herbal Essence commercials. We knew this one had a paved boardway, so we though it would be a safe bet. Blake took no chances and stayed in the car. When we were sure there were no leeches, Rusty and Josh took a dip in the falls.

Then we went in search of a platypus. We looked for a while, and thought we were out of luck. But on our walk back, I spotted bubbles in the water. And then a few seconds later, up popped a platypus! They are so cute a little! It was hard to get a good picture, but we had fun watching him dive down into the water. Then we’d look for his bubbles, and up he’d come! It was the redeeming moment of the day. Picture is from National Geographic, because all of ours weren’t great. But I DO think my video is quite clever. Make sure the sound is on when listening.

We went home at ate up all our leftovers and watched Finding Nemo to decompress. We caught so many more Australian references than ever before. Off to Melbourne in the morning!