Atherton Tablelands

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We're in Cairns and my impression of the city is that it is all about doing rather than seeing. The streets are full of tour booking agents and coffee shops. Yesterday we went on a bit of a booking extraveganza and lined ourselves up with a busy week. Today we visited the Atherton Tableland area. This is as far west as you can go from Cairns before you hit the outback. We toured the area and the sights along the way included a giant fig strangler tree, known as the Catherdral fig tree, due to its immense size, a boardwalk through the rainforrest and Mirra Mirra falls. I saw some fab butterflies! It was like being in a butterfly farm plus I really enjoy being in the rainforrest - you never know what you are going to see, the birds calls around are all exotic and the atmosphere is very peaceful. Of course, as this is Australia, there is always something out to get you and today we learned of the plants that can savage and maime. The stinging nettles are practically killer and a lot of plants have spines and needles to jab in you. Saying that, if you stick to the path and respect what's around you then it is wonderful. The worst we got was the odd leech.

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