It was time to say goodbye to the Tablelands as we set off for Cairns and the coast via the Gillies Highway, taking a short detour off to see the magnificent Cathedral Tree strangler fig, which is even more impressive than the Atherton Tree at Yungaburra.Halfway along the highway the road starts to snake and weave through the mountains as it descends to the plains below.It gets a bit hairy at times with tight hairpin bends and precipitous drops, but it's worth it...

A few kilometers from Atherton is the very pretty small town (we would call it a village) of Yungaburra.According to the guide books it's supposed to be 'picture postcard pretty', but actually we thought that description didn't really do it justice.Whilst it does have some picturesque buildings and is in a magnificent setting among the mountains, it's also very much a working, living, 'real' town.We arrived in the middle of the very popular monthly Saturday morni...

More in due course

The Atherton Tablelands are such a surprise - so green beautiful and mountains (albeit smallish ones). Driving from Undara, the road - Kennedy Highway - continued to be single lane for much of the way but as it gradually rose to the Tablelands it was so refreshing after months of dry, dusty landscapes to see lush green fields and Herefords and Friesan cows. Atherton itself is a nice & tidy little town and our site is very pretty on the edge of the bush with l...

On our way to Karumba we'd seen miles and miles of termite mounds and came across more of the phenomenon we'd seen before - isolated pockets of strong little whirlwinds that whipped up the dry leaves and grasses, and gave Annie quite a jolt when we were unfortunate to drive through one.We also had the odd sightings of a few Brolgas - a large bird similar to cranes and storks which are quite common in the north of Oz.On the road between Karumba and Normanton we we...