We headed down to Finch Hatton Gorge in the morning for what promised to be a unique rainforest experience. We hiked a trail to two waterfalls. Both were spectacular and had great swimming holes. We swam and ate lunch up at the "Wheel of Fire." The water was surprisingly cold and very refreshing after a long hike uphill.

Along the way down we saw at least 100 lizards of all shapes and sixes from less than an inch to a three foot monitor. We also heard lots of bugs and a "whip" bird. The male makes a loud, metallic screeching sound and the female makes a loud whip like noise in response. Both of the sounds remind one of aliens landing.

We then headed out to the "Flying Foxes" tour. A family has set up a zip wire on their 72 acre property that has a boundary in common with the national park. You get up high in the air and zip wire down to the forest floor. It was amazing to see the forest from above and be up in the canopy. So much lives up at that height (although nothing like Costa Rica) and it is lighter than on the forest floor. Seeing some of the palms and fern trees from above was a beautiful and unique angle. Being on the zip wire was fun because you could brake and stop whenever you wanted to get a good view, so we spent quite some time getting down.

One of the main attractions was seeing a group of flying foxes (like the ones we saw in Melbourne) up close, at their level. They are noisy little buggers, and cute. Many of them were grooming themselves, holding on by only one foot and scratching with the other. They also looked really funny when they would wrap themselves up in their wings. They have quite large eyes with which some of them stare out at you. They are quite the funkriders.

It was also great to talk to the people who run the operation. They are closely involved and concerned with sustainable ecotourism, and live sustainably off the land, using only hydroelectric and solar power which they generate on their own property. They also grow much of their own food, and he said that they can go for three months during the summer only going to town once to pick up things like soap and flour.

At sunset we drove up the valley and had out last evening meal together as a group, made on our camping stove. We then returned to the Chalet, snuggled, and read more of Lord of the Rings before falling asleep.