Atherton Tablelands, Dairy Farms, Crater lakes

Left the ocean coastal regions and drove up the mountains onto what is called the tablelands.  It is only about 50 km from the coast but the climate is very different.  Not quite as hot and not nearly as humid.  Really a perfect climate for camping as hope you can see from our campsite.

Plants are still very tropical and lush as you can see.

Took a drive around the area on Sunday and you can see the beautiful countryside with vegetable crops

Many  dairy farms in the area and we stopped to visit one which happened to be during milking time - note cows on the rotating platform - can milk 42 at a time and notice another 150 lined up to be milked.  They were being sprayed down with water to both to keep them cool and keep the flies away. At this dairy farm - Gallo Dairy and Cheese they made cheese and chocoloate.

In this area there are two crater lakes caused by volcanic activity - these are small round lakes but very deep - 215 feet.  Many kids swimming in it but once you are 4 feet from shore you are over your head.

These lakes are in a tropical rainforest area so the flowers are something else.

In the area this is huge curtain fig tree.  A fig plant is really a parasite tree that grow on other trees and then shoot their roots down like a curtain.

We decided it was so nice in the Atherton area and the weather is just perfect that we were just going to laze around for a day at the campsite.  Spent time in the pool and generally did nothing all day.

This evening we went to a nearby pond where playtypus can be found.  We saw turtles but no playtypus - Neil and Irene did see one but jut for a minute. You can only see them at dusk as they are nocturnal animals.. Can you see one in the creek?

\Tommorrow - Tuesday Feb 14 - we are heading back to the coast and plan to spend our last night together at Ellis Beach near Palm cove.  We are planning a night out for Valentine's day. Wed am we are taking Neil and Irene to the airport in Cairns and they leave on a noon flight to back to Sydney.  They will spend one more night in Sydney and leave for home on Thursday.  Rose and I will stay at Ellis beach until Saturday when we will go back to Sydney.  My study tour role stars on Sunday and will go for two weeks.