I totally abandoned my Australia trip report. But I’m trying to be better at finishing things that I’ve started so… here’s the next installment. 😀 Hehe.
Friday, August 14.
Today we explored the area of Cairns known as the Atherton Tablelands.
Since we didn’t rent a car, we went with Northern Experience Eco Tours and the owner, Brett, showed us the sights.
Our first stop was Lake Barrine where we were scheduled to have morning tea at the teahouse and a ferry cruise afterwards.
We opted for coffee and along with it we were given 3 scones each topped with raspberry jam and devonshire cream.Those scones were INCREDIBLE. SERIOUSLY. I’m drooling right now just thinking about them.
The ferry took us around the lake so we could see some of the surrounding rainforest — lots of umbrella trees and figs. We also saw ducks, turtles, an eel (creepy), and a brush turkey.
After the ferry cruise, we headed over to the famous curtain fig tree. This tree is amazing. Sadly, immediately after I took the above picture, Brett was going to take our picture in front of the tree and our camera battery DIED. I totally forgot to charge the battery the night before. %$#!@ Luckily, I had my iphone and our camcorder takes pics as well (although they’re pretty crappy).
We moved on to Milaa Milaa Falls where I managed to turn on our camera and take 1 picture before it shut down again. Grrr. Oh well. I tried. All the rest of the pictures from this day were taken with our camcorder so they’re really pixel-y. Anyway, the falls are beautiful — gorgeous flowers and plants all around it.
Lunch was at Mungalli Creek Dairy and it was probably one of the best tour meals I’ve ever had. It was the most amazing lasagna with a side salad, which was good because I hadn’t been eating many fresh veggies on the trip so far. We also got the chance to sample the yogurt and cheese that they make on site. Mmmm. My favorite was the havarti cheese. So good! The mango yogurt was also excellent. It’s greek style so it’s thick — really good and so flavorful.
The major stop of the day was Paronella Park. Jose Paronella was a Spanish man who made his money in Australia, brought his wife over from Spain, bought land, and built a “park” for his family. It includes a castle, cottage home, entertainment areas, gardens, and a lovely waterfall. The whole park is magical. We had about an hour to spend and we ended up following portions of the complimentary walking tour — but now, I wish we had walked around the park ourselves. While we got to see the castle, the grand staircase, the lower refreshment rooms, and Kauri Avenue, we still missed the turtle nesting area and botanical walk. It also would have been nice to sit in the picnic area by Mena Creek Falls and just enjoy the surrounding scenery.
Our last stop of the day was Boulders Lookout where there was a small swimming area at the end called Devil’s Pool. We had the opportunity to swim but only 2 of 8 of us did. I didn’t want to deal with changing and getting dry and all that stuff. We also had our afternoon tea so instead I stayed by the food and had coffee and chocolate biscuits. 😀
Back in downtown Cairns, we went out again to walk around on our last night. Rob wanted to check out the casino and play a little blackjack. After losing some more money (!), we went to the esplanade in search of food. Not wanting to go to a sit-down restaurant, we settled on self-service chinese food at the night market. It wasn’t very good. :/ All the fun is getting the plate and piling as much food on top of it as possible. Oh well. We grabbed some strawberry ice cream to make up for the average dinner.
When I was planning the trip, I thought we were in Far North Queensland for a long time (6 nights) but looking back, I would have loved to spend a few more days there. We could have spent more time on the beach lounging around or maybe even visited one of the islands located on the Great Barrier Reef itself. Next time. 🙂
More pictures on the Flickr:
Atherton Tablelands
Up next: Uluru!
