Atherton was the first stop , the drive over was windy , with strong gusts buffeting the ute around as we climbed up to Atherton . The temperature had dropped to 18 and there was a lot of cloud as well .
We got some supplies and headed off to The Curtain Fig Tree - we were here 23 years ago , so things will have changed . Pulling off Gillies Hwy , we head up to the parking area . There is now a loop boardwalk that takes you in and around the tree , the last time we were here there was some timber walkway , but it was very close to the ground and you could step off it , not now though - you are over a metre above the ground and there are hand rails all round . The curtain fig is still amazing - nature does these things .
Back to the ute and off to Yungaburra - a village with the most heritage listed buildings . It also has the weirdest roads & roundabouts - too hard to describe , there are not enough words !!! We had a look at the Botanic Garden & Park - there were lots of bromeliads , and many other colourful plants - some of the shrubs have interesting flowers .
Onwards to Lake Eacham - one of the crater lakes that have no water inflow or outflow , just rain and evaporation . The drive in took us through beautiful dense rainforest , with hundreds of Lawyer Cane Palms clinging to everything they can .
Down to the lake , and the water is crystal clear , with fish swimming around quite happily in the light aqua blue water . The rainforest goes right down and into the water , people were swimming and jumping off a pontoon - they were also commenting that it was warmer in the water than outside - the temperature was 17 degrees outside , with a wind chill also . Needless to say we didn't bother getting into the togs and dive in , we went for a 3klm walk around the lake instead !! This walk was great , but part way round it dawned on us - no matter where we were on the walk , it felt like we were walking in one direction the whole time ( north for example ) , instead of going round in a large circle - it was a weird feeling .
Getting back to the ute , we had lunch before heading around to Lake Barrine - another crater lake !
There is a tea room and a couple of cruise boats , someone was sailing a catamaran around also . There were more of those puffy flowers here in the beautiful gardens .
Again the water is crystal clear but a slightly different colour to Lake Eacham . There is a 5 klm walking track here indicating the larger size of the lake , we didn't walk this one !!
On our GPS unit we have Hema maps installed as well as the normal moving map GPS , we decide to go for a drive from here around Lake Tinaroo and come back out at Tolga - a small town just north of Atherton . According to Hema maps there is a road that goes through and round the lake - what it doesn't tell you , is that some of the roads , are actually paper roads - gazetted , but never actually made it to being a real road - and therefore don't actually connect to the other roads !!! We found that out after only about 5klms of dirt road that came to an end near someones driveway . Ah well , turn around and go back and find another way . It was only a few more kms along the highway to the turnoff . As we cruised along there , we came across the Cathedral Fig Tree - haven't heard about this one before - so in we went , 100 m from the car park . This fig tree was enormous - they have cleared some areas back and away from the tree , just so you can take a photo of it !! Up in the upper canopy were lots of big balls / mats of ferns , stag horns etc , that must be quite heavy , clinging to the branches . We had noticed quite a few of these in many trees today .
Back to our drive , it was going to be through a lot of rainforest , then into some plantation forest , before getting to Lake Tinaroo , that meant lots of twists & turns through lots of interesting country . We came across some old chimneys that were the remains of an old house owned by the owner of a timber mill back in the day , that took many Kauri pines out of the forest - one tree had 50 cubic metres of timber milled from its 3 sections ( the tree was about 4m in diameter and cut into 3 sections so that the wagons could take it to the mill ) .
Back on the road for about two minutes before we found another crater lake - Lake Euramoo - another one we hadn't heard of before .
Off again , down past turnoffs to camping areas on the edges of Lake Tinaroo - they were all pretty full due to the long weekend . The plantation timber up here is Hoop Pine , and makes a change from endless plantations of radiata pine . Before much longer we could see the lake , and the many sailing boats on it racing around . There were also ski boats , wake boats & jet skis as well - although most of the motorised versions were packing up due to the wind blowing across the lake - there was a two foot wind swell !!
Tinaroo Falls village was a surprise to us , with quite a lot of houses beside the lake and a resort as well - many of the houses were from the construction of the dam in 1958 .
The drive then took us toward Tolga and all the fields - some full , some ready for planting , some just planted . The soil is a dark red colour - something we haven't mentioned previously is the range of soil colours we have seen up here - some are a bright orange and all the way through to dark brown.
We headed home for a beer and enjoyed the warmer temperature - it was 23 degrees when we got back . The crater lakes are above 700 metres asl , so are higher than Moss Vale - they have to be cooler don't they !!!
One last photo after the sun had set .
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