October
18, Thursday & October 19, Friday
Once we reached the top of the mountains, we were on a beautiful high Atherton Tablelands.
Our first stop was a Cruise on Lake Barrine, a crater lake. We were served coffee, a scone and fresh cream.
There were beautiful ducks on the lake with an amazing irridescent green on part of their wings.
and when they switched angles, the green would turn to a bluish purple. Quite amazing.
The restaurant and dock on Barrine Lake
When we returned to shore, there was a lot of activity on the left lawns, so I went to see what it was all about. A SNAKE.....
curled at the bottom of this beautiful Amaryllus plant. We have to grow these bulbs in pots at home!
Back on the bus across the high tablelands
Our next stop was in the Mabi Forest to see a 600 year old Giant Curtain Fig Tree (Ficus Virens). The Mabi gets its name from the Aboriginal word for the tree kangaroo, the largest mammal found in this forest. There was actually a road sign that asked drivers to be careful since they crossed the road; something like a deer crossing sign or a cattle crossing sign. I was the only one on the bus of 16 passengers (most from Australia) who was able to identify that the animal shown on the sign was a tree kangaroo. It kind of helped that I had seen some at the zoo.
A 600 year old Giant Curtain Fig Tree
We also got to see some of the dangerous plants that grow wild in these forests:
- Wait-a-while Palm: It has long strands that have tiny hairs all over them and if they snag your clothing, or your skin, they hand on to it so that you have to "wait a while" before you can unsnag yourself.
- Stinging leaves: Very painful sting which can have an effect up to 6 months! Now that's a lot worse than poison ivy.
Driving thorugh the high tablelands of North Queensland. So different from the Darwin area and yet not that far away.
Velvety hills with grazing cattle. Actually they turned out to be buffalo. A few farms specialize in producing buffalo milk and meat.
Our next stop was at Milla Milla Falls, and its Columnar Basalt cliffs
A tree fern; I love these.
And they had an information board with a photo of a tree kangaroo !
During our drive through the rain forests we saw these bridges overhanging the road between the tree canopies. They are there to help animals safely cross over from tree tops. LOVE IT !
We made our way down, down, down from the high table lands to Innisfail.
Paronell Park, a Spaniard’s dream: José Paronella arrived in Innisfail in 1913 having sailed from Catalonia Spain. He dreamed of building a castle in this area, and it took him 16 years of hard labour to accumulate enough money to purchase a piece of land on Mena Creek Falls. Although he had no formal education, José built the first hydro-electric plant in North Queensland in 1933 and produced enough electricity for the castle grounds. He also loved to used recycled products in the buildings; he used pieces of iron railway as I beams. How smart is that ! In 1935, he turned the area in a recreational area as well as his family’s living space, and would make money from it: restaurant, ballroom where a live band played, changing cubicles, natural swimming pool, tennis courts, picnic areas, walkway through the woods, beautiful gardens, movies in the theater on Saturday nights (he purchased a film projector), freshly churned ice cream, etc. In 1946, a flood created massive damage to the lower area of the property, but undaunted the family replanted the gardens and within 6 months were open for business again. Unfortunately, José passed away in 1948 leaving his wife and 2 grown children to manage the property. They continued the business until 1977 when the property was sold. In 1979 fire swept through the castle, leaving only the walls and the turret as a reminder of what it had been. The park was purchased by a young couple in 1993 and they reopened the park after many years of restoration on the gardens. They also did background research and put together the story of José and his dream, opening a small museum on the property as well.
The remnants of the castle
There isn`t much left of the original grand building
This used to be the walls of the ballroom
The Grand Staircase that leads from the castle down to the lower gardens
The fountains
My camera started acting up again, before we got to the end of the gardens, so I’m missing lots of beautiful pictures of the Kauri Venue and the lower gardens. By the time I climbed the grand staircase back up to the castle, it finally started working again, albeit sporadically.
The bridges near the falls
Babinda pond
“The tropical rainforests are the richest ecosystems on earth. The Boulders area contains the most complex and diverse type of rainforest in Tropical North Queensland. A section of rainforest the size of a suburban house block contains more than 150 different tree species. A single tree may be home to hundreds of insect species.” Our driver provided us with afternoon tea while we were here.
The drive back to Cairns
Thursday:
Excursion Loop south of Cairns today with a company called Eco
Tours. My voucher indicated that the
tour pickup would be at 7:25, however there was a knock at my door at 7 am and
it was the driver. Yikes! He said he knew he was a bit early to which
I responded that I only needed 5 minutes to get dressed. He said he would go pick up a few other
passengers down the street and would be back to pick me up. Good thing I had been awake early. We will be looping through the mountains south
of Gordonvale today.
There were beautiful ducks on the lake with an amazing irridescent green on part of their wings.
and when they switched angles, the green would turn to a bluish purple. Quite amazing.
The restaurant and dock on Barrine Lake
When we returned to shore, there was a lot of activity on the left lawns, so I went to see what it was all about. A SNAKE.....
curled at the bottom of this beautiful Amaryllus plant. We have to grow these bulbs in pots at home!
Back on the bus across the high tablelands
Our next stop was in the Mabi Forest to see a 600 year old Giant Curtain Fig Tree (Ficus Virens). The Mabi gets its name from the Aboriginal word for the tree kangaroo, the largest mammal found in this forest. There was actually a road sign that asked drivers to be careful since they crossed the road; something like a deer crossing sign or a cattle crossing sign. I was the only one on the bus of 16 passengers (most from Australia) who was able to identify that the animal shown on the sign was a tree kangaroo. It kind of helped that I had seen some at the zoo.
A 600 year old Giant Curtain Fig Tree
We also got to see some of the dangerous plants that grow wild in these forests:
- Wait-a-while Palm: It has long strands that have tiny hairs all over them and if they snag your clothing, or your skin, they hand on to it so that you have to "wait a while" before you can unsnag yourself.
- Stinging leaves: Very painful sting which can have an effect up to 6 months! Now that's a lot worse than poison ivy.
Field of flowers on the tablelands. Not.... It turns out they were plastic plant
protectors, to stop animals from eating the young shoots.
Velvety hills with grazing cattle. Actually they turned out to be buffalo. A few farms specialize in producing buffalo milk and meat.
Our next stop was at Milla Milla Falls, and its Columnar Basalt cliffs
A tree fern; I love these.
And they had an information board with a photo of a tree kangaroo !
During our drive through the rain forests we saw these bridges overhanging the road between the tree canopies. They are there to help animals safely cross over from tree tops. LOVE IT !
We made our way down, down, down from the high table lands to Innisfail.
The entire low lying area along the coast has major sugar cane fields, but many of these are
being sold off by the farmers, to developers who are building suburbs. We passed a sugar cane factory along the way
and there was the sweet scent of molasses in the air. How long has it been since I’ve eaten
molasses? YUM !
We stopped in Innisfail for a buffet lunch at Roscoe’s
Restaurant and then went on to Peronella Park and its Spanish Castle. Paronell Park, a Spaniard’s dream: José Paronella arrived in Innisfail in 1913 having sailed from Catalonia Spain. He dreamed of building a castle in this area, and it took him 16 years of hard labour to accumulate enough money to purchase a piece of land on Mena Creek Falls. Although he had no formal education, José built the first hydro-electric plant in North Queensland in 1933 and produced enough electricity for the castle grounds. He also loved to used recycled products in the buildings; he used pieces of iron railway as I beams. How smart is that ! In 1935, he turned the area in a recreational area as well as his family’s living space, and would make money from it: restaurant, ballroom where a live band played, changing cubicles, natural swimming pool, tennis courts, picnic areas, walkway through the woods, beautiful gardens, movies in the theater on Saturday nights (he purchased a film projector), freshly churned ice cream, etc. In 1946, a flood created massive damage to the lower area of the property, but undaunted the family replanted the gardens and within 6 months were open for business again. Unfortunately, José passed away in 1948 leaving his wife and 2 grown children to manage the property. They continued the business until 1977 when the property was sold. In 1979 fire swept through the castle, leaving only the walls and the turret as a reminder of what it had been. The park was purchased by a young couple in 1993 and they reopened the park after many years of restoration on the gardens. They also did background research and put together the story of José and his dream, opening a small museum on the property as well.
We were given a guided tour of the property
There isn`t much left of the original grand building
This used to be the walls of the ballroom
The Grand Staircase that leads from the castle down to the lower gardens
The fountains
My camera started acting up again, before we got to the end of the gardens, so I’m missing lots of beautiful pictures of the Kauri Venue and the lower gardens. By the time I climbed the grand staircase back up to the castle, it finally started working again, albeit sporadically.
The bridges near the falls
Our next stop was at Babinda Boulders, (a series of huge
round outcrops of granite, smoothed by the rushing waters of Babinda Creek) where
my camera again would not cooperate during my walk through the forest to see
the boulders. Actually, the water level
was quite low, so it was not as spectacular as it could have been. I walked back to the drop off area and the
camera again began to cooperate for a few snaps of the ponds.
“The tropical rainforests are the richest ecosystems on earth. The Boulders area contains the most complex and diverse type of rainforest in Tropical North Queensland. A section of rainforest the size of a suburban house block contains more than 150 different tree species. A single tree may be home to hundreds of insect species.” Our driver provided us with afternoon tea while we were here.
The drive back to Cairns
The sun is setting behind the surrounding mountains
Friday: I spent
the day resting since it was pouring rain.
No comments:
Post a Comment