Atherton Fablelands

Atherton Tablelands is a place to savour the many fruits of life with wineries, distilleries, coffee, dairies etc. all situated in a magnificent setting  We had beautiful weather, still and warm during the day but pretty chilly at night, got the heater on tonight.  On arrival did the best setup so far in just over an hour, then the boys had a swim and I went to the shops.  So we saved the bacon and eggs for Monday, having had to pack up the morning before, and relaxed and had a lovely brekkie out in the sun.  Then we rode down to the tackle shop and restocked our gear and also got some gear to catch barras, although the guy said if the boys hooked one they will be doing waterskiing too.  Then we packed the car with fridge, barbee, swimming stuff and fishing stuff and headed off to Lake Tinaroo.  We pulled a car out of a ditch on the way there,stopped for a leak, and then found a nice protected spot at the platypus camp area.   

 The plan was to hook some small fish and then use them as live bait to hook a barra.  But we didn’t get a nibble, so it ended up being a sunbake and swim sess which was nice and relaxing looking across the stunning scenery of the lake.  As the day started to wane we had a nice cook up and the boys made up some fun games.  

  Wooz was doing his branching technique on a tree again and the whole branch came down on me and Arch and flattened us, which Kirst thought was hilarious.  The bird life was amazing and all the cockies were flying back to their roost for the night.  On the drive back we checked out the dam wall in the dam dark and the boys did a dam race down the dam grassy hill.  Then today we had a look in the crystal cave and the boys broke their own geode.  The crystal collection was amazing but we only got a 6/10 in the quiz, so we didn’t get a prize.  Kirst checked out her future in the crystal ball, then felt the love in the rose quartz fountain and the boys checked out the amethyst empress.

  Then we headed off to the Coffee Works for lunch and a tasting session.  The boys had some fun quizzes to do and they tasted the teas and chocolates while Kirst and I tasted all the coffees and chocolate liquors.  The museum there was great and we saw the coffee beans being roasted and then bought some coffees and teas and 2 plunger mugs so we can have some quality coffee in the camper now.  

  From there we went to Granite Gorge and had a little swim in the rock pools then did the walk down the gorge and fed some wallabies. The rock pools were slippery so the boys slid down the little waterfall and Wooz saved Arch and I in the deep pool by throwing us a bone.

Then on the way back Arch caught a noddy head lizard and we wandered up and saw the ladies collection of birds and lizards including quite a funny cocky that wanted to know what we were doin!  When we got home NaDan had his first tooth fall out and then dropped it and lost it.  Hopefully the tooth fairy will find it.

Today we did a tour of the waterfalls, first stopping at the curtain fig tree and platypus walk at Yungaburra where Wooz spotted a platypus from the bridge and Kirst tried to get a shot of it (not shoot it ofcourse).  

We had a nice picnic lunch at Milla Milla falls and Arch and I braved the icy chill for a couple of Last of the Mohicans shots.

All the falls were quite impressive but we only got in the first one.  The boys hopped on the dead tree stump for these shots.

Then we trundled off to the Mungalli Biodynamic Dairy farm for some cheese and yoghurt tastings.  Archer got a mango icecream and said it was the best on tour and Kirst and I had a coffee.  Then we headed back for a swim in the pool.  Tomorrow we leave the fablelands for much harsher territory as we start to head west on the Savannah way.  First stop- Mt. Surprise.  The Chinese must have built that town and were always asking for more supplies!