Ozzie Holiday - The Atherton Tablelands

We decided to take a day trip to Queensland's Tablelands. Inland Queensland that took us into a very rural setting . But not all rural farmland as it boasts its own 'lake district' and a wealth of rainforest and wildlife.


To take a quote from another website
"You can enjoy barramundi and fresh water fishing, cruise and swim the lakes, historic steam train rides and birdwatching.
World heritage rainforests... mountains... rivers... lakes in extinct volcanos and magnificent waterfalls. All this is around an hour from the coast and about as far from where the outback starts.
That's just part of this benign and fertile plateau reaching up to 1000 metres above sea level. Primitive ferns hang from and around giant Kauri pines as they've done for hundreds of years. There's strangler figs with roots hanging more than 15 metres to the ground."

Taken from that great site

www.holidaynq.com.au/atherton.html

You could spend a whole holiday in this area which extends as far south as Innisfail and as far north as Port Douglas. We had a single day. Apart from the lakes there are walks and treks around lakes and to waterfalls and into the rainforest. Arts and crafts shops and galleries abound. Small farm type industries with wonderful names such as the "Humpy Nut World", Mt Uncle Distillery, and the "Mungalli Creek Bio-dynamic dairy (cheese tastings and tea house). Too much to cover in a day,. Especially when the bird and animal life was so different again . We decided not to do a mad drive through the area and try and see everything ... So we headed for the main township of the area, Atherton, check out the Tourist Information there (the Queensland Tourist Information shops are the best we've ever encountered... Friendly, informative, and very keen to help you get the most out of your journey).

And so up with the larks (or kookaburras :o) we headed south and over the mountain range known as the great dividing range. As we zig-zagged along with the winding road we were able to see out and across the plains of both sides to the range ... Again the weather wasn't good for the scenic shots ....

On the Tablelands the rainforest left us and a rural farming and more scrub bush land emerged. The land around Atherton is used to grow a variety of crops, including Sugar cane, Peanuts, mangoes, maize, potatoes, avocados and macadamia nuts. All this with dairy and beef cattle being farmed in the area.

Along the way we also saw a large number of termite mounds. I'd not seen them in so many numbers or so large. I might add that we were well abused by a passing truck driver when taking these pictures ....Mile after mile of roads straight as an arrow and he's upset at us parked on the roadside.... But I got the pictures :O)


















Of course you always encounter roadworks somewhere along the roads travelled







The construction going on revealing how red the soil is in parts of Australia









Here still were some sugar cane fields as well as the Banana plantations ... Each bunch of fruits wrapped inside a plastic bag .... I suspect to keep insects and Bird life off them .... Must be highly labour intensive to do









Various roadside stalls provided interest along the way ..









While the drive was long there was plenty to look at and if we'd had the time we could have stopped numerous times ...However the schedule was tight in that we wanted to be back at the Retreat by dark and so Atherton was to be the 1st real stop ... Atherton is a growing township likely to loose (or have lost ) a lot of its charm as it does so ... However there is still a good deal of the older Ozzie buildings of various styles in place ...










This wonderful building turned out to be the courthouse.







I had read about the "crystal Caves" shop in Atherton ... We stopped off to have a look. Crystals from around the world as well as locally were on display and/or for sale... What did catch our eye was a pile of unopened Geodes from South America ...geodes are basically round rocks that have various crystals inside of their hollow centres. You can read more on them here ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geode

We decided to buy one and have it cracked open. We would be the first people ever to see the formation inside.







The shop has a large geode "stone cracker" in full view inside the shop. Having decided on a suitable sized piece of rock we were invited to do the 'cracking' of the rock ourselves ... As soon as we started to prepare a number of spectators formed around us









Safety specs were put onto McD who was to hold the two halves. what effectively was a large chain was wrapped around the rock and I was given the task of pulling on the lever until the rock broke .... With the warning to stop as soon as it does break .....









I pulled slowly downwards .. a couple of small cracks as the chain bit..I stopped immediately.... A louder 'crack' as I pulled harder down. I stopped immediately ....And then a real "CRACK" as the rock split neatly into two and into McDs waiting hands .....

We were given a talk on what was inside the two halves and then they were wrapped and given to us to bring home ....

Something to keep forever... A fond reminder of one of our travels together.

"When one of us dies we should bury one half with us " I suggested. "A connection between us even through death"....

Well - I'll leave McD to tell you about what that started !!! .......




Stay tuned for part 2 (and maybe 3) for tales of giant strangler fig trees, formation flying ducks and whip birds .... :O)

A year in My garden September (3)A year in My garden September (3)

 

 

I just realised the clocks go forward tonight... So now it's after 2am and I've started this ......Better not ramble on too much then :O) 



I've had Job interviews last week  !!!! ....

 

 

 

So here's the rub ...Within the same 1/2 hr I was offered a job and turned down for another job ....Turned down for being too senior and too experienced for the role..they Thought I wouldn't enjoy the operational focus of the role (??)

 

So I've a certain company who have offered me something - The role isn't as 'chunky' or as senior as I'm used too... but looks an interesting role and probably has good potential (seeing the state they are currently in)....Not only same company but same department as where McD works !! (expected that to go against my being hired...) The money really isn't great which bothers me ........The job market here even in IT isn't boyant..I have another possible opportunity coming up but no guarentees of getting it...Then the possibility of nothing else Or something else more suitable ...who knows when though ...... what to do - what to do ...

 

 

 

Work on  the raised borders continues albeit slowly. Spring is a time when every day you witness the miracle of life....Seeds little more than dust are bursting out with new life. And sprouting at an incredibly rapid rate....I've Planted far too many seeds of some …whoops … Interesting how other seeds  take that much longer to sprout…. But one thing you have to have in this gardening game is patience …

 

 

I’ve also potatoes and Maori purple potatoes and yams to plant out – maybe … I’m starting to run out of space – even for dustbins etc … we’ll see… Meanwhile we have harvested some of the broccolini we planted over winter which was very nice. We also have a couple of squares of bright-lights beet and some squares of kale that provide a regular and abundant supply of green vegetables …

 

 



Don't mention the fence - it's on the list "o) 

 

We never plant things at the right time – always something that gets in the way …Broad beans that we bought from the garden centre have grown, but not grown particularly tall and judging by the seed sown ones next to them are probably quite spindly as well …. But they are flowering profusely  …. We bought some lavender bushes in pots and flowering. We’ve put those around the broad beans in the hope to bring in the bees … The early flowers haven’t set …. True to form the bumble bees are working the lavender but I’ve not seen them on the broad bean flowers yet ….

 

 

 

I’ve also had to start on the flower borders …Too overgrown and full of weed and grass (above picture)… I’ve pruned the silver ferns as well that are at the end of the border …as well as the small almost bracken like ferns that are in front of them… they are already shooting up new fronds and looking good …..



Much to McDs horror I cut down some 'scrub' bush at the back edge of the border. It’s changed the look completely as you can now see down into the forest that surrounds the garden.

 

 



The 'after' picture but see how there is now a pleasing depth to what is a very narrow border - comments please :O) do you agree or is the 1st picture preferable?? 

 I think she is happy with the result though. 

















From the edge of the garden there is a 6-12 foot drop down onto the lower hillside. Our patch of the forest continues then down to a small trickle of a stream. The whole area is a mix of the giant and very prehistoric looking Black Tree Fern and our native beech trees … It’s nice to be able to see into the forest and indeed further across to the next hill that starts up from the stream ……..





These fronds are huge ...So impressive



One year that will be my project – to renew the paths through there and extend them properly down to the stream …If we stay here … Some debate on that

The Ozz Holiday - Daintree & Cape tribulation Pt 3

We continued to drive and stop along the road at cape tribulation ...



It was annoying that our days were so cloudy when we were by the beaches. The pictures do not show how special they are ...Here the rain forest came right down to the sandy shore. It was windy but a warm wind and fairly light this time ....    









































We had walked a long path through the forest to get to the beach. As we walked back over a strangely coloured stream we noticed there were fish swimming around in it ...



  







And around every corner a new plant to wonder at ... 







We drove as far as we could ...A store and turning area marked the end ... Though we did drive a little further the road ended and a gravel track started .... 



It was time to meander back home ... Our last stop before the car ferry back was to take in the views from a scenic spot 











































We noticed some movement in a tree beside us as we took these pictures ... It was a small parrot ...In fact it turned out to be the smallest parrot in Australia - the Double eyed Fig-Parrot..... And true to form she was munchinmg away on the fig fruits as we watched and tried very hard to photograph her 









































A bit of a messy eater isn't she :O) 







None of the pictures came out too well ....Typical ... This one caught the ghost of a noisy myhna ..











Oh well - It was fun trying :O) I wonder if McD did any better ?? 

The Ozz Holiday - Daintree & Cape tribulation Pt 2

After the river ride we were ready for lunch and so headed back to a restaurant we had seen towards the Daintree township.... As we went in the Owner was giving a 'show and tell' of the local plants and foods of the area to a party of coach tourists ... they didn't seem to interested ....Either full or hungry they looked like they had already had enough for the day ...



We were thankfully lead out of the restaurant and into the garden . Our table overlooking a small pond obscured by the native trees in and around it ...Then the garden plants around us .... It was a long wait for the food .... But we amused ourselves listening to an overly opinionated woman a table or two away from us .... He child was nearly university age but still breast feeding .... Just seemed a little strange to us .....



Anyway there we sat with backs thankfully towards them ... A native Ulysees Butterfly Fluttered quickly about in the distance ... A dot in the camera eye piece even with a 500mm lens attached ....



"You would need to buy a separate seat for that thing on the plane" Quipped the restaurant owner... Could have almost happened a few days back I thought ....



But then a faster blue shot past us ... a King fisher ..Perched on a branch over the water keeping a watchful eye on any possible food surfacing ... Still too far away really - but while still waiting for our barramundi fish lunches to arrive I happily passed the time trying to get an in focus shot .... no tripod of course - they were in the car .. So with elbow on the table this was the best I could get ........















































While the garden wasn't overly attractive in terms of layout (the surrounding forest made up for it) there were a few plants of interest as well

Lunch done we headed off to the car ferry to take us across the river to cape tribulation.... No way I was allowed out of the car due to the crocodile stories we heard ...Jill very firm

on that one .....



Once off the ferry we drove at a relaxed pace (speed restrictions ) meandering through the rain forrest. It's very dense but very exotic made up of unknown numbers of species of tree, bush , vine etc .... I was already wishing we had more time to explore ...Never enough time ....



We stopped off about half way before the road ended at a marked walking track ...A wooden raised pathway took us through the forest and over mud flats and the mangroves ....almost every other step there was something to look at ...

This I think, is a strangler fig ...Its host long dead leaving a lattice of the figs branches that would have been wrapped around its host's trunk ......There is some conjecture as to whether the fig does indeed strangle the tree to death this way or simply outlasts its host ....





















These mud crabs were everywhere ..But bolted to the safety of a hole at the first sign of danger ...

















No Crocs to be seen ..We were happy to be on the raised pathway just in case ...











A huge fern around the trunk of a tree... Very impressive to see it ... This picture really hasn't done it justice











I would need tomes of information books on the area to be able to name all of the plants and insects and so on that we saw .....











Yet another 'wish it had come out right' pictures ... Mcd beside a huge palm frond ... Some of these had the most vicious thorns ....and a few vicious ants between the thorns as well .......