Blogs from Yungaburra, Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Travelling from one place to another with children in tow can be a daunting task. Even the most well-behaved child can be quite a handful during a trip. This can usually be attributed to the change in environment, moving from a place that they know to an unfamiliar area can be disruptive to their routine. However, children do not have to make the idea of travelling sound too hard, you just have to plan ahead in order to take care of any contingency that may arise. When travelling, the safety of your toddler is of utmost importance and listed below are a few tips for ensuring that your child is perfectly safe while on a journey Be prepared While travelling, your child will most likely come in contact with dirty objects or surfaces that are full ... read more

Well I have a job! I'm now in Atherton which was a 1hr 45min drive from Cairns. Arrived this morning, and just got myself a little settled in, unpacked a few bits etc as I'm going to be here to 3-4 months hopefully! Only getting 3 hours internet a week so contact with everyone online will be minimal! Mostly phone calls. I'm doing pretty good, up in the tablelands which is beautiful :) missing everyone lots! Little jealous you're weather back home is better than mine here, and here in Atherton it's not as warm as in Cairns, but still pleasant enough! Anyway just a little one to say I'm OK and whats new, doubt much will happen until I start working, it's quite a small town, the other backpackers here have been telling me how ... read more

Bereits um 4.00 sind wir wach, zumindest einer von beiden und nur noch 2,5 Stunden bis Sonnenaufgang. Man versucht doch noch etwas zu schlafen. 4.30: Immer noch wach, jetzt beide, auch wenn eine eigentlich gerne schlafen würde. 6.30: Endlich Sonnenaufgang und ab zum Creek. Die Schnabeltiere sind auch wach paddeln an der Oberfläche des trüben Wassers und tauchen ab, nach ca. 15 Minuten sieht man Luftblasen aufsteigen, das seltsamste Tier der Welt kommt wieder nach oben. So gegen acht ziehen sich die Tiere in ihre privaten Gemächer (selbst gegraben Erdhöhlen) zurück. Wir gehen Frühstücken, können aber noch auf einem der Bäume am Ufer ein Baumkänguru entdecken. Es sitzt recht versteckt in der Baumkrone und ist nur mit dem Fernglas zu erahnen. Nach dem Frühstück – Selbstversorgung ist angesagt, denn vor 9h geht nichts in Yungaburra - ... read more

Hi again, Seeing as I had about a week left in Cairns and not much to do, I booked onto a tour up to Yungaburra in the Atherton Tablelands. The Tablelands are basically a lot of green, gently sloping hills, all on top of the mountain range, about 1000ft above sea level. To start the tour, Paul picked us all up at about 7am, and took us on a quick tour of Cairns' industrial estate, where we saw some "native wildlife" - the workmen in trucks and working on the road. Paul explained how they can be identified by their hairy faces and florescent jackets (yellow=junior, orange=adult). Every time we passed one Paul would beep his horn and get everyone to wave. Following this we headed out onto the highway, past a "dingo" (pet dog) about ... read more

Kangaroo, where are you?: the Atherton Tablelands Friday 23rd January 2009 We’ve been in Australia exactly one month today and we still haven’t seen a Kangaroo! We’ve made our eyes ache looking for them. However, when we zoom in on some of our photos on the computer, we can see some blurry images of small Tree Kangaroos peering at us through the bush on the Atherton Tablelands. Hopefully we’ll get to see some properly in the next few weeks before we leave Australia. We’ve seen some dead ones on the road. We spent a long time stalking quietly through the rainforest yesterday looking for Cassowaries to no avail but we’ll keep looking over the next day or two whilst here on the Cassowary Coast at Mission Beach. On Wednesday we left Port Douglas and headed inland ... read more