Well I’ve been slow in getting this next Blog up, difficulty in getting a good regular internet connection didn’t help. However I’ve been in some great places and met allot of amazing people. Once again I’ve added an audio file (this time shortened down to a more listenable length)
Yungaburra is 1 hour inland from Cairns on the Atherton Table lands at 820m above sea level. I stayed right on the edge of the rainforest which was teaming with wildlife, many birds, insects, frogs, butterflies, wallabies, kangaroos and snakes. Australia is full of poisonous creatures and plants, so I was rather wary keeping to the roads and regular walkways.
This is maybe why I seemed to be fascinated by some of the road signs like the ones below!
The wild life on my daily dog walks around Yungaburra is fantastic, with many recordings of birds, frogs, always something to see, or to listen to.Mareeba only 40 minutes away by car, had its 10th Multi Cultural Festival, while I was there, the variety in foods and music impressive. For a small country area, this event was mostly very good quality.
This area (the Tablelands), is a plateau about 800m high & grows everything from wine, sugar cane to go with the coffee & tea. Tropical fruits and abundant wildlife including all manner of snakes, spiders and wonderful creepy crawlies, even the winters around here never get frosts with some days pushing 27 deg in September.With the odd bike ride around the district Madi & I found these tame Brahman cattle, with skin like velvet.
I managed to find the beautiful Wrights Road Creek within easy walking distance (a little known track down to the river), spending lovely afternoons playing my sax down there in the rainforest. Pretty sure I saw a Platypus down there....the photos don’t do it justice!
Many highlights of my time on the tablelands, and it will be the sights and sounds of the environment. Interestingly the people in the tropics seem to retire for the day around 8-9pm.The "Weather Board" below I spotted at the local Mareebra market.
I'm told the Kookaburras can take little chickens and are as bold as the sounds they make!
After nearly three weeks in the Rainforest, I went inland from Herberton looking for a flavour of the outback and found something like it (although I think I would have needed to go a further 100 klms to really sample the outback). I only saw one other car on this road and managed to chat to the occupants, a couple of NZ dairy farmers on holiday in their off season!
Colourful sunrises and sunsets are not (in my opinion) as common as in NZ, infact the light is very soft and clarity is hazy.
I enrolled in Cairn's first Busking Competition and within 10 minutes of registering and having a blow, was asked if I had a permit, that's it hanging of my sax strap. I'll tell you how the Busking Festival and competition went in the final blog of this Aussie Adventure...
Blog # 6 will follow promptly.......cheers mates
Jimu
