AthertonTablelands
To cap off spring break, Rich & I went from the Whitsunday Islands up to Cairns, and met up with his friends Lee & Uriah ... for a bit of fun we rented a car for a day and drove around the Atherton Tablelands, a beautiful region of countryside just southwest of Cairns
September 30-October 2, 2004

001-LOTR-Pinball On Thursday, Sept 30th, Rich, Lee, Uriah & I went to the Cairns Central mall, since all of us were tired and it was raining outside, and right before we went to a movie there, I spotted this super-cool LOTR pinball machine in an arcade 002-WindingRoad On Friday, Oct 1st, Rich, Lee, Uriah & I rented a car and decided to take a drive through the Atherton Tablelands ... I took the wheel for the first part of the drive, which was a very curvy and winding road through the Great Dividing Range 003-HairpinCurve Hairpin curve ahead, one of many 004-Lookout View from a roadside lookout in the Great Dividing Range 005-GilliesRange The Gillies Range portion of the Great Dividing Range 006-HoldenCity The Holden Astra that we rented 007-Jared-DrivingInAustralia I'm driving in Australia! 008-Lookout Scenic lookout 009-Lookout Another lookout 010-Road The long and winding road 011-UriahJared Uriah and me 012-Lookout Another lookout view 013-CathedralFigTree Our first stop of the day was to see this, the Cathedral Fig Tree ... it's ginormous! 014-Roots Roots of the Cathedral Fig Tree 015-CathedralFig Cathedral Fig Tree 016-Rainforest Rainforest around the Cathedral Fig 017-JaredLeeRichUriah Me, Lee, Rich & Uriah standing inside the Cathedral Fig Tree 018-CathedralFig Another look at the Cathedral Fig Tree 019-Jared-EmuCrossing Emu crossing! 020-Turkey Some kind of a turkey ... it was the first time I'd seen this bird, but we were also to see one at each and every stop we made in the Atherton Tablelands, they were quite common up there 021-Sign Sign at. . . 022-TwinBullKauris . . . the Twin Bull Kauris 023-LakeBarrine Lake Barrine, part of Crater Lakes National Park 024-LakeBarrine Lake Barrine 025-LakeEacham Lake Eacham, the other part of Crater Lakes National Park in the Atherton Tablelands 026-LakeEacham Lake Eacham ... Lee & I even went for a swim, it was a bit cool (although not too bad for a lake), the water was super-clear, it got deep amazingly quickly (which I guess could be expected from a crater lake), and most of all it felt so good to swim in fresh water finally again, after having been swimming in salt water the past few days 027-SawShelledTurtle A saw-shelled turtle in Lake Eacham 028-Goannas A couple of goannas on the shores of Lake Eacham 029-LakeEacham Lake Eacham ... there are so few lakes in Australia that it seems like they've made every single one a national park! 030-AustralianPelican Australian pelican 031-TreeKangarooCrossing Tree kangaroo crossing 032-CurtainFigTree Curtain Fig Tree 033-CurtainFig Curtain Fig Tree 034-CurtainFig Curtain Fig 035-CurtainFig This picture should give you another idea of just how huge this tree is 036-Sign A sign describing how a curtain fig tree forms 037-AthertonTablelands Driving through the Atherton Tablelands 038-AthertonTablelands Atherton Tablelands 039-AthertonTablelands The scenery was so beautiful the entire drive 040-MilaaMilaaFalls Milaa Milaa Falls, the first of three in the 041-Creek-Turkey Milaa Milaa River and a turkey 042-MilaaMilaaFalls Milaa Milaa Falls 043-LeeUriahRichJared Lee, Uriah, Rich & me 044-RedFlowers Some red flowers 045-RedBush-MilaaMilaaFalls A pretty red bush with Milaa Milaa Falls in the background 046-AthertonTablelands More gorgeous scenery in the Atherton Tablelands 047-Signs Signs pointing the way to the three waterfalls on the waterfall circuit 048-ZillieFalls Zillie Falls 049-Whitewater Whitewater 050-ZillieFalls Zillie Falls ... climbing over to the waterfall was a bit treacherous, the rocks were incredibly slippery 051-Overhang Looking up at the overhang of Zillie Falls 052-BehindTheWaterfall Behind the waterfall 053-LichenRocks Lichen-covered rocks 054-EllinjaaFalls Ellinjaa Falls 055-EllinjaaFalls Ellinjaa Falls 056-EllinjaaFalls Ellinjaa Falls 057-Jared-EllinjaaFalls Me at Ellinjaa Falls 058-AthertonTablelands Atherton Tablelands 059-BananaSign Maybe they have problems of theft with banana plants around here... 060-BananaTrees Banana trees ... these were all over the place up there in Queensland, along with sugarcane 061-AthertonTablelands Atherton Tablelands 062-AthertonTablelands Atherton Tablelands 063-AthertonTablelands Atherton Tablelands, with Mt Bartel Frere in the background 064-BananaPlants More banana plants 065-MtBartelFrere Mt Bartel Frere, Queensland's highest point, visible ahead 066-Sign Welcome to Wooroonooran National Park (I just love the place names here in Australia!) 067-WhiteFlowers Some white flowers along the path to Josephine Falls 068-JosephineFalls The lower portion of Josephine Falls 069-LichenRocksRoots Lichen-covered rocks and roots 070-JosephineFalls Josephine Falls 071-JosephineFalls Josephine Falls 072-JosephineFalls Josephine Falls 073-JosephineFalls Josephine Falls 074-Downriver Looking downriver 075-Jared-JosephineFalls Me at Josephine Falls 076-AthertonTablelands Atherton Tablelands 077-Sign The signs are always interesting here too 078-BouldersGorge Boulders Gorge 079-Boulders Boulders Gorge 080-Boulders The Boulders 081-DevilsPool Devils Pool 082-AthertonTablelands Atherton Tablelands ... those are cane plants in the field 083-CaneRailway There were lots of cane railways in this part of Queensland too, and they're far narrower than a normal railway 084-RedSoil Such red soil! A very sharp contrast to the jet black soil in southwestern Minnesota for sure 085-CairnsFigTree A giant fig tree in a city square in Cairns 086-VirginPlane On Saturday, Oct 2nd, it was time to head back to Melbourne (via Sydney) with good ol' Virgin Blue 087-CairnsHarbour Cairns Harbour 088-SydneyHarbour Sydney Harbour ... the first time I've ever seen the Sydney Harbour Bridge or Sydney Opera House! ... also the only time I'll see them before mid-November 2004

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