The Atherton Tablelands Part 2

It was cooler up in the tablelands and on my first evening I watched the sky on fire as the sun set behind a distant smoking, burning forest. Next morning it was bright and clear the sun soon warming everything up.

There's undoubtedly something very English about the Atherton tablelands. The rolling grassed hills could be somewhere in Britain but only after a dry summer. It was a bit like the Victorian alps again feeling like the European Alps but differing in the details. Squint at the landscape quickly and you might believe you were back in England, look more closely at the details like the road signs (warning of Tree Kangaroos) the place names, the gum trees the shape of the cattle and of course it's totally different.

So with Colleen playing tour guide we whizzed around some of the sights- taking in Crater lakes, massive fig trees and stunning waterfalls. Sweet-faced, floppy eared and humpbacked Brahman cattle munched the grass peacefully in the fields by the roadside.

Back at the farm some family friends were over for a barbeque and to watch the rugby (the Queensland sport of choice).

On Sunday we went to see a few more sights and to the tablelands produce fair to sample local cheeses and mango wine (mmm!). At dusk we tried to spot platypuses in the farm dam where they live. We'd seen a few the previous night but they were even shyer tonight. So next day I got up at dawn and walked down the fields with Magpie geese flying overhead and Kookaburras making shrill morning calls to try my luck. This time the elusive platypuses were out in force, appearing at the surface before ducking down to use their bills to dig for prey.


I was delighted to see wild playpuses since these are found only down the East coast of Australia and in Tasmania and are such unique creatures. When the first specimens were sent back to Britain they were believed to be an elaborate hoax, an animal constructed out of the body parts of other animals! Furred body, webbed feet, tail like a beaver, bill like a duck. And the males a venomous claw on their hindfeet (add to the list of Aussie dangers) Laying eggs but also producing milk they fall into the monotreme catergory with the spiny Echnidnas, an order of their own distinct from marsupials and placental mammals.