Atherton Tablelands
January 6th 2007 22:10
Due to serious hangovers and then a day of absolute bliss and relaxation we slept in on the next morning in Cairns. By the time we woke up the sun was high in the sky and our tummies were grumbling loudly. Also due to the aforementioned reasons we had no food in our flat and there was no restaurant so we scratched through the rooms Compendium in order to find out how we could go in search of something to eat.
"Located only 500m around the corner is a store for all your shopping conveniences" or something like that jumped out from one of the pages. Plus they offered free home delivery if you shopped in their store....bonus as the heat was already swirling around outside.
OK, either I am blind and should have read 5000m or in Cairns they measure things a little differently, but after wandering down this endless road the heat began to get to us. Rippling images of a tree-lined oasis began to appear in the distance, the water cool and inviting, the fronds gently swaying in the breeze.....perhaps a slight exaggeration, but you get my drift! NO WAY WAS THAT 500M IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD!!
As they say, never shop on an empty stomach - we came back with so much rubbish that we did not need (thankfully they did live up to their promise of a free lift home - I fear we would still have been wandering the streets!), but with our stomachs full and us recovered from our crazy heat-induced dellusions we took a drive to the Atherton Tablelands and all the banana plantations that were destroyed a few months later during Cyclone Larry.
Our first stop was at the famous 'Curtain Fig' which is well worth the visit! A short stroll across the wooden platform takes you into the forest and to the tree
which they say would take a week to count its hanging roots. I reckon that would be a little ambitious considering how they creep and crawl over each other.
Next stop was at 'Walsh's Pyramid' which is
By this time the day was getting ready to end and we had to start heading back. There is a lot more to see and do in the Tablelands that we never got to, so make sure you do some research before you go so as not to miss out on anything. Spend time in the forest - its much cooler in there!
"Located only 500m around the corner is a store for all your shopping conveniences" or something like that jumped out from one of the pages. Plus they offered free home delivery if you shopped in their store....bonus as the heat was already swirling around outside.
As they say, never shop on an empty stomach - we came back with so much rubbish that we did not need (thankfully they did live up to their promise of a free lift home - I fear we would still have been wandering the streets!), but with our stomachs full and us recovered from our crazy heat-induced dellusions we took a drive to the Atherton Tablelands and all the banana plantations that were destroyed a few months later during Cyclone Larry.
Our first stop was at the famous 'Curtain Fig' which is well worth the visit! A short stroll across the wooden platform takes you into the forest and to the tree
which they say would take a week to count its hanging roots. I reckon that would be a little ambitious considering how they creep and crawl over each other.
Next stop was at 'Walsh's Pyramid' which is
the highest freestanding natural pyramid in the world (http://www.cairnsattractions.com/a_walshs-pyramid.html)
By this time the day was getting ready to end and we had to start heading back. There is a lot more to see and do in the Tablelands that we never got to, so make sure you do some research before you go so as not to miss out on anything. Spend time in the forest - its much cooler in there!
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Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Byeee
Comment by Ash
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
It certainly is a fab spot to stop off at isn`t it?? Just not in December
I could have stared at the roots for hours, they were amazing, you can imagine the years that it took to get there - would be interesting to come back in another hundred years to see how it`s going!
Ash