Yungaburra and Atherton Tablelands

From Magnetic Island we moved inland over a mountain range to the Atherton tablelands area. This area was historically all rainforest but much was converted to farmland with white settlement.

The tablelands were beautiful with many hikes, waterfalls, craters, lakes, and large and strange trees. This one is a strangler fig:

 This one, a "pine," is over 1000 years old:

 Crazy students in the background, jumping in the freezing water. Ok maybe it wasn't freezing but the air temp was probably in the 60s.

 Cadie wanted to get in this one:

 Barron river falls:

The first night we were in Yungaburra we walked along a river trail and found platypi! Not sure if that is the correct plural term but I'm talking about these guys:

The platypus was much smaller than I expected - more like a baby beaver. Just outside of the town of Atherton we saw herds of kangaroo hanging out on a golf course. Apparently they like big green grassy areas. The 'roo in Australia is similar to the deer in the states. They come into towns and eat gardens and get hit by cars. They are hunted for meat and pelt (ask Cadie how she liked her 'roo burger). I think they are pretty cool, and good tasting. 

We spent Eric's birthday in Yungaburra and celebrated with a night canoe trip on a lake to spot night animals. Even though it was way past her bed time, Cadie was in great spirits and on the way back in was making us all laugh with her goofy comments. We found the elusive tree kangaroo:

Along with three different species of possum (much cuter than the Ohio counterpart):

Cadie's favorite animal was the barking owl that sounded like someone's yappy pup.

 Can you spot the littlest goof-ball?

Now a few comments about the little man - learning some things from his sister:

including how to move! He took his first few knee crawls in an airport on the way to Australia and almost overnight (or whatever that time-warp of travel was) became a serious crawler. I love the packaging on these "nappies" - "catch me mum!"