I should confess that we were not really lucky with the weather since we arrived in Queensland. We started with a beautiful sun which soon turned into grey and cloudy sky. Not really easy to visit around with that. We started to discover the Queensland by the far north Queensland. Atherton was our first destination and we had a crush with the landscape. In between mountain, rainforest, sugar cane fields, the north has a lot of surprises.

Platypus

Not far from Atherton we met our friends and to celebrate meeting up again they took us to a place where we sould have the chance to see a surprising animals, the platypus.
The river at the entrance of a village is where we started our walk to try to find the tiny bubbles at the surface witch indicate the platypus comes up to breathe.

We were surprised about the size of the platypus we saw. We imagined them bigger. Their small size give them an even more cute apparence and the way they swim is really funny.
We stayed there a long time to try to find them or follow them, we were like a kids everytime we saw one coming back at the surface.

Casowarie

On the good advices of our friends, we were on the road for what we will be a great surprise. Direction Dinner falls, smalls falls on the river witch feed the big Barron falls.
Here the girls told us, they saw 3 cassowaries. On the road we were excited, impatients to see these big birds. On the car park no cassowaries, we were a little disappointed because that was where the girls saw them, but we hoped to see some on the way.

And just before leaving the car park at the border of the forest, a cassowary, wonderful, huge with a small bump on the top of is head, probably a young one or a female. It’s a beautiful and majestic bird. At that point we got motivated even more to go for a walk around walk and try to see more.

For the hike, the area is nice, we can see a huge crater and learn about its features, like its depth. Imagine a line of 10 bus in an upright position and you will have the depth of the crater. Further you can see différents small falls. Nice but no cassowary on the way.
And then, on our way back to the car park, 50 m of the forest’s exit, a big one came out of the forest on the walking track. A male, with a big crest, beautiful colors from turquoise to royal blue on is neck to finish with a red touch.

After the surprise and the sensation to be “the lucky ones” we realised it was very close to us and it could be dangerous. We tried to be brave to go past him and quickly escaped, but not without taking a lot of photos and enjoy this bird’s beauty.

When we were back on the car park, as we were about to leave, an other cassowaries decided to cross near us.
I should confess it is really nice to take pictures of them.
As a conclusion, even if the Dinner falls are not the craziest falls in Australia, they are totally worth the detour just to have the chance to see these beautiful birds.