Asherton Tablelands

Tai took a day off to show Aaron and I Asherton Tablelands.

The road we traveled was a winding one (see map above). 

Near the top, we stopped to take a gander at the view—as did a tour group. 

 Tai and Aaron were trying to get into the act.

Not sure who these two divas are!

We stopped at two beautiful lakes. The first was Lake Barrine where we snooped around the Lake Barrine Teahouse and took a short walk into the rainforest to view twin Kauri trees—over 147 ft. tall and 19 ft. in circumference. 

The garden around the teahouse was quite lovely!

We also visited Lake Eacham which was an amazing green color. The swimming, if it had not been a rainy day, looked great! We spotted several birds here (but won't bore you with the details YET).

   

Had lunch in Yungaburra at the local inn and pub.

Next stop: The Curtain Fig Tree—one of the largest trees in Tropical North Queensland from the strangler fig species, Ficus virens. Normally these parasitic figs germinate on top of another tree and try to make roots into the ground. Once this important step is done, the fig will grow vigorously, finally kill the hosting tree and then grow on independently. In this case the hosting tree tilted towards the next one, the fig also grows around that one. Its curtain of aerial roots drop 49 feet to the ground (see the illustration below).

The spider needs no introduction. He was about the size of my palm.

Millaa Millaa Falls

Zillie Falls

Ellinjaa Falls

We drove on through the beautiful countryside to see three waterfalls.

 There are over a dozen falls in this area.

Life around the waterfalls.

These Fern Trees are beautiful—one of my favorite things in Australia and New Zealand! 

One more stop before the day was out! I'll save that for the next post.