An overcast morning greeted us for our drive today , passengers loaded , we headed south back to Ingham . Gerry & Beryl were our guests today , we met in Marble Bar last year .
Being the tour guides today , we stopped at Hinchinbrook Island Lookout , which seems to live in the clouds - not surprising really , as one of it's peaks is 1142 metres above sea level - that's impressive !!! as is the view - this is the southern end of the island - it's also about 38 klms long .
After a stop at the wetlands in Ingham , we headed off toward our main destination for the day . Just for a change , we were driving through sugarcane fields , and crossed over Stone River - something of a surprise to us - it was carved out of limestone !!
Unfortunately someone had driven over a diamond python just across the bridge . Continuing on , we left the cane fields and found some cattle country , not to be outdone , there was also a herd of goats as well . The road started to wind up into the mountain and through pristine rainforest - there's something magical about rainforest like this - it's amazing .
Pulling into the carpark , we wandered over to the observation deck and we taken aback by the scale of the view in front of us - Wallaman Falls - at 268m , it's Australia's longest single drop waterfall , and is 554m above sea level !!!
This waterfall is totally amazing , the water cascades over a small section before plummeting towards the pool below in veils of mist & spray - it was captivating .
Photos don't really do it justice - it's an awesome sight . The plunge pool below is 20metres deep !! After looking for about 10 mins , we walked down to the gorge lookout - there's a series of holes & smaller falls as the water makes it's way down the gorge .
There's a 2klm return walking track to the bottom , many younger backpackers were coming back up - very sweaty and puffing hard , we went down the first 150m or so before coming back up , we may go to the bottom next time we visit .
Back down to Ingham , we had some lunch in one of the parks in town . It was still early in the afternoon so we headed to Lucinda out on the coast . More sugarcane fields , harvesting is in full swing at the moment , cane trains slowing our progress several times , also a sugar train - the processed sugar is exported from here via ships . The loading facility is the longest jetty we've ever seen - it has a conveyor system that takes the sugar 5.7 klms out to the ships - yes , 5.7 klms , it goes on forever !!!
This is the start of the jetty .
We drove around to Dungeness - a boat ramp , and a hotel/motel and a huge carpark - there were at least 40 cars & boat trailers parked there , some fishing trawlers also are moored in the river .
With another few things ticked off the list , we headed for home and a quiet ale . Gerry & Beryl enjoyed their day out as much as we did - a good day was had .
Here's a map link - best viewed in satellite view :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1f6IkzjBuzEOK8LYJqmNi2jeMyKI&usp=sharing
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