Alyssa Lai, 2011 North Queensland student blogger, writes:

We’ve been on the move again! We left Magnetic Island, or Maggie Island as the locals call it, and drove about five hours to Yungaburra. We’re staying at this cute little backpackers lodge called On the Wallaby.

On the way there, we stopped by Millaa Millaa Falls, pictured right, where the Herbal Essences commercial was shot! “Millaa Millaa” translates to “fall fall” in the Aboriginal language. We learned that when they wanted to emphasize that there was a lot of something, they just doubled the word. Easy enough. The water was pretty cold, but we all took a dip under the waterfall. It was absolutely stunning.

Today, we learned about the rainforests and even helped weed some invasive species out of an area to help reforestation. We were all hot and muddy by the end of the whole ordeal, but I think we were glad to perform some community service overseas! We came across all sorts of things: spiders, bandicoots, frogs, you name it!

I didn’t find out until I got back that a leech had gotten onto my foot and dined on some of my blood. We learned today that if a leech gets into your eye, there’s nothing you can do but let them finish and they will drop off naturally. This can take up to an hour. I personally cannot imagine going through that and honestly don’t want to think about it at all!

Tonight, we’re going tree kangaroo and platypus spotting by canoe, which I am extremely looking forward to. Hopefully, we’ll be able to spot some animals!