Atherton Tablelands

Here is a pic of our current home away from home.  We are feeling particularly privileged to have been welcomed into Ron and Paula's beautiful home and farm in the Atherton Tablelands.  For us it is a truly special 'farm stay'. 

It was pretty cold this morning and hard to get out of bed (but not as cold as Yamba where they were scraping ice of their windscreens he he he).  The cows got us up, however, and when Bruce returned from his MBR through the hilly countryside we enjoyed a cooked brekky.



We spent the rest of the morning engaged in homework, washing and whip repairs before heading out after lunch to the Avenue of Honour Memorial in Yungaburra.  This moving memorial is dedicated to the memory of Aussie diggers who made the ultimate sacrifice in the fight against terror in Afghanistan.

This beautiful tree lined avenue stretches 250 metres, almost to the edge of the magnificent Tinaroo Lake.  It's a splendid location for a memorial.  It was pretty cool that they'd even thought to include a memorial to the five explosive detection dogs who had lost their lives during this conflict.

We stopped off at Atherton to get some provisions and yet another three 50c icecreams from McDonalds before spending the rest of the afternoon circumnavigating Lake Tinaroo (in the rain).  Lake Tinaroo is a picturesque man-made lake created by damming the Barron River, for irrigation and hydro-electric purposes.  It is also used for power boating and water skiing and has numerous camping site along its 200km.

We stopped in at the Curtain Fig Tree - the Tableland's most famous tree!  These strangler figs are quite common in northern Australia and are one of my personal favourites.  (Fletcher's favourite, incidentally, is the boab or as he calls it, the "Boabro" Tree)

Anyway, the strangler fig's seed is deposited in the host tree's crown by a bird or a bat.  It germinates and the seedling lives in the tree's canopy, obtaining nutrients from leaf litter and rainfall. When the seedling becomes too large to rely on these nutrients, it waits for favourable conditions then sends out long cable like roots to the ground while others encircle the host.  The fig continues to grow, either outliving or eventually strangling the host tree.

In the case of the Curtain Fig Tree, the host tree fell into a neighbouring tree, resulting in vertical fig roots descending down from the fig's trunk to form the curtain like appearance.  Eventually the host tree rotted away leaving the free standing fig tree.  Cool, huh?

A bit further along in the Danbulla State Forest, we came across another 500+ year old strangler fig.  This one, known as the Cathedral Fig Tree, has a 44 metre girth and is approximately 48 metres high.  It is so large that you can walk inside!   The cathedral like ambience is awesome inside this monster, and the fig's long vines seem very much like giant pipe organs.

We came home via the twin crater lakes - Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham.  Though the rain kept us from enjoying the lovely picnic spots, we couldn't help but hop out of the car to watch this little dude waddling on his merry way home.  How cool!