Cairns and Atherton Tableland

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After having said good-bye and farewell to Digby, Alison and Kimmy-chops, I was the only person for most of the itinerary down to Cairns in the same shuttle bus service I came up to Cape Trib. Before moving gradually down to Brisbane, I had planned another 4-5 day's stay with my former house mate Cheong (a little north of Cairns), who just settled here at a catered dormitory a few days ago for doing an additional MBA at university here. He showed me around the campus, and together we strolled around Cairns. Life is very laid-back here, and one can see many Asian faces in this city. The next day we visited the annual fair / exhibition of Cairns... loads of things to see and do and eat there! hahah. Particularly night-life here is great! Fire-dances at the beach and "The lagoon" at twilight are great!!! Cairns also boasts itself with a casino with numerous black-jack tables and heaps of surveillance cams! One day we rented a car for exploring Atherton tablelands. First we had a stop at a small tourist village near a famous waterfall, where one could spend loads of money for many (useless) small things. Some German expatriates also sold Bratwuerste, but Cheong unfortunately was not hungry at that moment ... After that, we made a stopover at one of the few Australian coffee plantations, where we got loads of hands-on demonstrations about coffee harvesting and finally could sip one of the best coffees I have ever had, from their own beans! Terpentine (special strain of ants) mounds there also attracted our attention. Then we went on, visited small museums, old military (airport) places, drove through former volcanic regions with pretty remote, former volcano lakes and finally visited old, very old trees and "the cathedral", a just incredibly old and huge and majestic tree! Late in the evening we finished our tour with some great dish at a Korean restaurant in Cairns. The next day, Cheong transferred some of his Chinese mp3s to my mobile phone, and I was perfectly equipped for the train journey to Rockhampton.

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Photos

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beautiful lagoon at the esplanada there

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near yungabarra

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at jaques coffee barn.... really good coffee from their own beans

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