The friends we met at Mission beach told us a stop by Wallaman Falls on our way south was a must. They even gave us detailed directions on where to stop for the perfect picnic provisions on the way there, so who could say no to that!
We departed Mission Beach and headed south for the town of Ingham and Wallaman Falls. You drive through huge stretches of nothing but sugar cane fields that were just absolutely beautiful to see. There are so many shades of blue and green between the mountains, sky and fields and they just seem to go on forever. We were all fascinated by the sugar cane rail carts they use to transport everything after it is harvested. The rail system they have is incredibly extensive since there are so many sugar cane farms in Queensland.
After passing through the sugar cane farms, you start a steep ascent up a windy road to the falls that takes about 45 minutes. Craig and Trudi had suggested we stop at Lou’s Food Emporium in Ingham for picnic supplies. It was a fantastic little Italian shop that had a case full of amazing cured meats, cheese Italian antipasti and fresh baked rolls. We had grabbed the picnic essentials there and had a quite bite to eat at the scenic overlook at the top of the falls before heading on the hike to the base.
Wallaman Falls is the highest single drop waterfall in the southern hemisphere. The falls are 268 meters high (roughly 800 feet) and the descent to the base was a two-kilometer hike. Craig and Trudi told us to be on the lookout for pythons in the trees on our hike down. Needless to say, I kept my eyes peeled, but we didn’t run into any. It was a steep hike down, but it was absolutely beautiful.
We had to cross over some huge boulders to get to the water’s edge. There hadn’t been as much rain as usual and you could tell that sometimes the water from the falls came up over the tops of all of these rocks, which was pretty crazy to imagine.
We’d passed a few people coming up from the falls on our hike down, but when we got to the bottom there was no one else around. We took a dip in the water and it was COLD! It’s actually the first time I’ve ever heard him say water was too cold. Let’s just say it was ‘refreshing’! I will just say that nothing can make you feel quite as small as floating in the water and staring up at a massive waterfall. It just made me feel like such a little speck in the universe!
Right when Matt got in for a swim, these two ducks flew down and landed in the water. They weren’t too close, though, so we didn’t think much of it. Then they immediately dove under the water and disappeared. We were a little nervous not having any idea where they were heading and then they popped up right near Matt! We nicknamed them the ‘torpedo ducks’ because we were pretty sure they were going to come at us like torpedoes under the water!
We finished up our swim and then started our hike back to the top as it was getting late in the afternoon. We were planning to get to Townsville by the end of the day and still had a bit of a drive ahead of us.
The Detour Diary 