Atherton Tablelands

Resting at the top of Mt Ida near Herberton

Cool tree

Lake Eachem

Another cool tree - Bumpy Satinash

Another day in and around the Atherton Tablelands today which has been nice – very windy so not particularly warm but still sunny. I can see why this is called a ‘foodbowl’ area as there’s fields and fields of crops and/or fields sitting ready for crops looking very fertile. We visited a peanut farm first thing, although unfortunately they’re not planted until December each year so we were reduced to seeing the peanuts in packets in the shop, rather than on the actual farm, but still made a few purchases. Then to Herberton, a tin mining town a bit south of Atherton, where we went on a bush walk up onto and along Mt Ida,  which was only 6k but absolutely exhausted me as quite a bit of it was really steep uphill or downhill – either that or I’m just out of practice, having done too much sitting in the car for the last while! After lunch we headed to Lake Eachem which is beautiful, it was created when super hot water under the ground exploded and burst through, creating a crater, which then filled with water. It was only 10,000 years ago so there is a local aboriginal creation story about the event involving people who did the wrong thing, killed the wrong animal I think it was, and paid for it! There was a nice, flat, easy walk around the lake under the cover of rainforest with lots of brush turkeys running around (still no cassowaries!). That’s pretty much the day, and now we’re back at our free camp at Rocky Creek near Tolga which is really quite impressive – it’s a bit flat field basically next to a war memorial, and although it’s right next to the road so there’s lots of noise, there’s flush toilets – with paper!) and wash basins, which considering it’s only gold coin donation, is a really good visitor service. It mustn’t impress the local caravan park owners but I think they figure if they keep the grey nomads happy, they’ll come into the little towns and spend money on food and activities, and get the tourist dollar that way.