We rented a car on Saturday, 19 April and took a drive inland to the Atherton Tablelands, which rise up to 900m above sea level. After a spectacular climb, we arrived on the tablelands, and it was so different from the coast; it was very pastoral and looked a lot like England. Indeed, there are many dairy farms up here, plus peanut plantations, sugarcane, and the Nerada Tea Plantation. Our first stop was at the Curtain Fig Tree. This is one of those Banyan Figs I've already mentioned (we passed a sign for the Cathedral Fig Tree, but there are only so many places one can visit!). This fig tree was spectacular:
On our way again, we headed south to the Waterfall Circuit, a little drive that passes three waterfalls. That was another unusual thing about this area, that you can be driving along through what appears to be a simple countryside, then come upon these beautiful waterfalls that almost appear out of nohwere. It was previously a volcanic area, though, which would explain it. Here is one waterfall, at Malanda:
The three we passed on the circuit were Millaa Millaa, Zillie, and Ellijaa:
We stopped in the town of Atherton for lunch, and our final stop was Granite Gorge, a little ways off the beaten track, and somewhere I wouldn't have gone had it not been recommeded to us, but we are glad we went. Granite Gorge is a small gorge filled with huge boulders, some the size of a house. We were able to scramble among them on a rough path, over creeks, and past swimming holes and interesting rock formations.
The best part about it was the presence of dozens of rock wallabies. They were almost tame and we were able to feed them (food was sold for just this purpose). They were so cute, when we held our hand out with food on it, they put their front paws up and ate right out of our hands.
We then made an equally spectacular descent to the coast and back to Cairns.
No comments:
Post a Comment