Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Atherton Tablelands

Atherton Tablelands

We absolutely loved the scenery of the Atherton Tablelands. There are rolling hills full of dairy farms surrounded by mountains. Along some of the roads rainforest remains and it is quite pretty driving through it.

Wednesday

We spent the day driving around looking at waterfalls and little towns. One town we stopped at was called Malanda and here we did a tour of the Dairy Farmers factory. We watched them make and fill 2 and 3 litre milk bottles. They make and fill 9 million 2 litre bottles and 3 million 3 litre bottles a year.

Did you know? If empty milk bottles are not filled within 3 days they shrink by 15% that is why milk bottles are made with the circular indentation on the side of them. So they can plug them up to stop them from shrinking.

The factory delivers milk all the way to Darwin.

After our tour we were taken back to the cafe where our guide made us all a milkshake.


Millstream Falls

Curtain Fig

Malanda Falls

Milla Milla Falls

Milla Milla creek walk

Milla Milla creek walk

Zilla falls walk

Alanna at Zilla falls

Atherton Tablelands from lookout


Dinner falls

Dinner Falls walk

Ellinjaa Falls






Thursday

In the morning we went to the Crystal Caves in Atherton. It was very well done. We had to wear hard hats with lights on them. After looking through the cave ( man made with lots of different crystals in the walls and ceiling) the kids cracked open a 44 million year old geode each.

Geodes start their lives as a hollow bubble inside a layer of rock. The bubble could be from air inside explosive volcanic rock. As the mineral-rich water moves on through the bubble, tiny crystals are left behind, clinging to the sides of the bubble. Millions of years pass while this in and out flow of water gradually builds crystals inside the empty space.

Crystal Cave tour

Inside the Crystal Cave.

Kids looking at Amethyst Crystals

Luke cracking a Geode.




In the afternoon we went to Gallo’s Dairy and watched the cows being milked. I was quite amazed at how quick the process was. The cows are herded into individual stalls on a huge turntable. The turntable can hold 42 cows. As it slowly moves around the farmer at the beginning puts the machine on the cows udder and by the time it has almost done a full circle the second farmer takes of the machine and the cows reverse out of the stall turn around and walk out into the paddock again. Another thing that amazed me was that the bulls got on the turntable as well and went around for the ride. (I didn’t think that bulls were kept in the same paddock as the cows.)

Cows waiting to be milked

Cows being milked on the turntable.
The cow with pink on its udder had a calf
in the morning.










Friday

We drove to Kuranda. After looking through the shops and the Butterfly Sanctuary we caught the scenic railway down to Cairns which took about 1 ½ hours.
Careena was very happy
when a butterfly landed on her.





Todd's expert photography
Ready for take off











The train stopped at Barron Gorge falls for 10mins so all the passengers could get out and take photos .It was very beautiful but Alanna and Luke don’t know how to appreciate the spectacular views.

We had to go through 15 tunnels (all hand dug with picks and shovels). Every time we went through a tunnel Alanna and Luke pretended to be nocturnal and mucked around. When we came out of a tunnel they pretended to be asleep. (I guess they are learning things in their own way.)
Crossing the bridge

Barron Falls

On the train

We caught the Sky rail back up to Kuranda. I was a BIT nervous. (Everyone else thought it was fun and enjoyed teasing me.) I relaxed by the end of it.

The sky rail is 7.5 kilometres long and the highest station is Red Peak which is 545 metres above sea level. We got off at Red Peak and did a 10 min boardwalk around the rain forest. After another short ride we got off at Barron Falls station and looked over the gorge before continuing onto Kuranda Station where we had our photo taken in the Gondola.


Me loooking brave
(I'm actually squeezing Careena's
leg and hanging onto the side.)

Luke cool as a cucumber

Girls on Gondala loving it.

Looking down on the rain forest

One of the walks


Lookin down on Barron Gorge

Barron Falls

Looking back on the skyrail from our
Gondala

Barron River

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