The first waterfall that Sam and I visited today was Little Millstream Falls.
Leaving the car park at Little Millstream Falls the rain had stopped... for a couple of minutes!
Even the savannah country was lush and green on this visit.
Little Millstream Falls was already visible in the valley below.
I arrived down at the huge Little Millstream Falls plunge pool to find it slightly flooded.
Little Millstream Falls.
Climbing back up the well graded track to the ute.
Leaving Little Millstream Falls we motored south west down the Kennedy Highway for ten minutes to check out Millstream Falls (sometimes known as Big Millstream Falls). This waterfall is more of a classical single drop job, although for me it lacked a little of the raw power of Little Millstream Falls. There is a sealed track that zig zagged down to a constructed lookout here, although the lookout was somewhat compromised by a tree (bloody nature!). This walk would be possible in a wheelchair although most people would need assistance due to the grade I'm thinking. This walk also came in at well under a kilometre.
Dropping down the sealed track to the Millstream Falls Lookout.
Millstream Falls
Millstream Falls Lookout.
Millstream Falls
Sam's climbing back up to the ute - looks like the rains back!
With the rain still bucketing down Sam and I headed across to Millaa Millaa to check out arguably the most well known waterfall that we'd visit today, Millaa Millaa Falls. With it's almost perfect symmetry this place is one of those Insta spots, the perfectly formed curtain of water dropping into a beautiful plunge pool. Now while doing a waterfall walk in the middle of a week long tropical monsoon meant that all the waterfalls were really pumping, however it also meant that the water was a little turgid, especially in the plunge pools so there were no Insta photos today! This little walk was a really short one, we basically dropped down a long flight of stairs and we were at the waterfall.
Millaa Millaa Falls
With so much water coming down we weren't looking at crystal clear rainforest streams today.
Millaa Millaa Falls
After leaving Millaa Millaa Falls Sam and I continued following Theresa Creek Road around to our next waterfall, Zillie Falls. This little walk was the roughest little stroll of the day. Initially the track was ok as I made my way to the lookout above the waterfall however after leaving the lookout I picked up a pretty rough and muddy pad that dropped me down to the plunge pool. While things were pretty rough getting up and down, once I was down below the falls it was a pretty spectacular site as I was quite close to the cascading wall of roaring water. This walk was only around 400 metres all up.
The track to the Zillie Falls lookout was a good one.
The view from the Zillie Falls Lookout was a bit limited.
The track down to the plunge pool at Zillie Falls was rough, slippery and steep - all in all a bit of a handful whilst wrangling a trekking umbrella!
The view from down near the plunge pool at Zillie Falls was probably the pick of the vantage points.
Back at the ute after safely getting out of the gorge below Zillie Falls, Sam and I continued on along Theresa Creek Road, shortly after arriving at Elinjaa Falls. In some ways Elinjaa Falls are a little similar to Zillie Falls as the are best seen from the creek bed below, although the track down to the base at Elinjaa Falls is nowhere near as rough as the one back at Zillie Falls had been. To get the best photo of Elinjaa Falls I ended up balancing somewhat precariously on a rock in the middle of the flooded creek today, somewhat miraculously arriving back at the ute with my DSLR still working! This walk was around a kilometre in total I'm thinking.
The track down to the base of Elinjaa Falls is a nice easy one.
Elinjaa Falls.
I waded into the middle of the flooded creek to get what was probably the best photo of Elinjaa Falls.
Elinjaa Falls
Leaving Elinjaa Falls our day wasn't over yet as we now headed down the Palmerston Highway for a few kilometres to drop down Brooks Road and check out Mungalli Falls. I'm not sure if it was because we were at the back end of a day of torrential rain however these falls were really pumping, the creek above the falls had well and truly broken its banks and was flowing over the grass. To access Mungalli Falls we had to walk through the Mungalli Student Village Café which felt a bit wrong, however with the day being what it was there was no one to be seen when we visited. Mungalli Falls drops over the biggest drop of any of the falls that we visited today although from what I can tell there is no access to the base of the falls. The lookout at the top is actually cantilevered out over the drop a little and that combined with the amount of water coming down meant that this was a memorable waterfall to finish of our day of chasing falls. There is bugger all walking involved in this one so it maybe a good one for people who don't like walking.
The cascade above Mungalli Falls was a seething mass of white water today.
The water was encroaching onto the lawn near the cafe this afternoon.
Mungalli Falls dropping into the abys.
Mungalli Falls features a big drop.
The Dirt.
We probably drove 150 kilometres today on a mixture of sealed and unsealed roads, all these roads are normally suitable for 2wd vehicles driven with care. I guess we walked around 4 kilometres on these easy walks, most of them would be easily do able for most people, although the drop to the plunge pool at Zillie Falls is a little rougher - if it looks too daunting then just give it a miss. I'm pretty sure that there is a tourist style signposted drive that visits some of the waterfalls, a visit to the information centre in Millaa Millaa or Atherton would probably set you up with a map and a brochure.
Relevant Posts.
The Atherton Tablelands made for a damp place to explore today - this is the view over the ridges from the Mungalli Falls Lookout this afternoon.
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