Atherton Tablelands

Never heard of the place. The Tablelands?! But again we have landed in paradise. It’s green and lush, and it a place full of volcanic craters filled with water. We stay in a camp site by Eacham Lake, and we have driven through charming little villages with adorable names like; Youngaburra (where Solli ended up doing some speedy wine tasting, and buying a bottle of Emu’s Wish), Mareeba, Malanda and Millaa Millaa.

Yesterday we explored deep craters, pretty waterfalls and small and large lakes. On a short stroll looking for tree kangaroos we came across a tiny lake full of turtles. They were obviously used to being fed, as they all swam towards us as we stood on the edge. They were tiny turtles with cute little heads sticking out of the water. I love turtles, and seeing them in the wild, made my day.

It’s difficult being outside (or even inside) without coming across some, for us new and exciting animals or insects.  A kangaroo crossed the road while we were driving today, a pelican swam on the lake we went swimming in and insects attack us all the time. We quickly decided not to buy any sugary cereal again when we saw the numbers of sugar ants that were feasting on our honey roasted muesli one morning.

As we arrived in the campsite we are staying in now we had some serious animal action. Torkild came running to the cabin from the reception area, “ they are catching a snake! come and look” . We headed towards the reception, but unfortunately we missed the real action as the snake was already in a bucket with a lid. The camp site manager had caught a snake by the communal bathroom. He said he normally deals with small snakes and pythons himself by stepping carefully on them, and picking them up behind their heads. We had a little look at this one in the bucket, and then it was driven off to a new territory in the forest.

Just got offered to stay an extra night for free at this wonderful campsite !!!That means getting up really early tomorrow morning to travel to Cairns airport, but it also means that we can spend the money saved on going out for a meal. A bit fed up of home barbeques now:)

Going to see our friend Alistair in Brisbane next, and hoping for some good surf!

Our cute cabin, with no snakes or spiders...

...but plenty of these lovely creatures.

Ru and Erlend playing at Mossman Gorge. Very strong current after a thunderstorm in the night.  

This Brush Turkey is looking for food among our stuff.

Boyds Dragon 

I want more butterflies in my garden!

Very deep vulcanic crater. Did not go swimming here...

Millaa Millaa waterfall. We went for a swim here :)