What's on the Table

We spent two glorious weeks on the Atherton Tablelands and it remains one of our favourite places on the planet. The mountains, lakes, rain forests, and everything so green, green, green!  Lots of photos on this post as these capture the beauty of the highlands better than my words.

Lava tube explorers

First night was spent at the Undara Resort http://undara.com.au/ which is the stepping off point for the world famous Undara Lava Tubes. Although a little on the pricey side ($38 for powered site, and $57 each for the Lava Tube Tours) it’s well worth the time and money to see these marvels of nature. The photos don’t properly show the scale of these formations and you have to see it first hand to appreciate the attractions of the tubes. One more off the bucket list!

The Britton Camp

Apart from 2 nights in Atherton at a caravan park (to stock up on supplies, water, and alcohol) we spent the remaining time camped on the water at Fong-On Bay at Tinaroo Dam.

My secret red-claw spot

Tinaroo Dam is one of those magic places that has it all, a massive lake nestled in the mountains filled with 

Crocodile Kerry and Red-claw

Red Claw and Barra (apparently??), thousands of water birds, and curlews and bandicoots walking (hopping?) around the camp-fire every night. 

The daily routine of getting out on the mist covered water at daylight to check the red claw pots, troll for Barra for an hour or so, home for breakfast, and then heading out 2 hours before dark to set the red-claw pots and troll for Barra was pretty hard to take.

Jabiru at Tinaroo

Caught no Barra (water too cold) but it was nice to be out in the tinny which hadn't seen the water since Venus Bay in SA some months ago.

We were also very lucky to catch up friends and family from Cairns who took the time to come up and see us at Tinaroo. 

While at Tinaroo we took a few day trips:

Looking up at us looking down inside the Cathederal Fig

Accompanied by Tony and Trudi who had travelled up from Cairns to spend some time with us we did a day trip to Lake Mobo  (crater lake),  Cathedral Fig, Lake Bareen and then lunch and a red or two at the  villa over-looking Tinaroo. A great day out and so good to catch up with Tony and Trudi.

Mt Edith Rainforest Stream

When we were talking to Tony he recommended a 4WD trail in the National Park where we were staying. It’s a 450M climb up Mt Edith Road to 1050 meters and then down  450 meters on Karri Creek Road back to the lake.  43km round trip but a nice drive. You start out in tropical rainforest, head up into highland eucalypt forest, come down through pine forests and back into rainforest. It’s a steep climb up Mt Edith Drive (Linda was hanging on in sections!) but 4WD drive is not really needed other than to user the gearbox for engine braking on the descent (would be a different story if it had been raining!).

Young treckers at Milla Milla Falls

Our next day out was the waterfall circuit at Milla Milla which encompasses three waterfalls - Milla Milla, Zillie and Ellingaa Falls. http://www.millaamillaa.com/waterfalls.htm   Each of the falls has reasonably good access although Zillie requires a walk down a bit of a goat track if you want to photograph the falls from the bottom. 

Ellingaa Falls

From Milla Milla we drove out to Herberton for a counter lunch and the plan was to then to get back to our camp via Atherton.  That was until Linda gort a text message from a tour guide operator asking if she had lost her Tablet!. On the way from Milla Milla to Herberton we stopped at the McHugh Look-out and Linda had left her Tablet sitting on top of a post there! Turned out the tour bus was stopping at a Lake Eacham – a crater Lake not far from the eastern entrance to the Park. So we detoured back to Lake Eacham and then headed home. So lucky to have met an honest person who had the IT smarts to look up Linda’s contact details on her Facebook profile!