Paronella Park

WEDNESDAY, 6 JULY 2016

The cow at Gallo was a bit of a puzzle

Curtain Fig Tree

Diane and Emma at Lake Barrine

The three girls at Millaa Millaa Falls

Castle ruins at Paronella Park

Green frog with yellow feet

BIG spider - a good 15 cms long

Enjoying the gardens

Kauri Walk

Turtle spotting from a distance

Fungi

Waterfall

Diving platform

Not a selfie

Family group

Picnic tables

Balustrade

Fountain

The Thirty Nine Steps

Ruin

Suspension bridge - Emma!!!

Lake and river

Weir

Turtle

Not only was yesterday very hot, it was also the day we were at the airport at lunch time waiting for the arrival of Kathryn, Diane and Emma, who will be spending a week in Cairns with us.  Although their flight was a few minutes late, it wasn’t long before we had them checked into their cosy little cabin, with a selection of tourist pamphlets for reefing and rafting.  Then it was time to hit the shops for some lightweight clothing; it didn’t take long for them to realise it is “winter” in Far North Queensland!

Today, we headed up the Kuranda Range to the Atherton Tableland, with a quick stop at the strawberry farm for an ice cream before another stop at Gallo Dairyland where we had a quick glance at the cheese (couldn’t carry it all day in the car, so not interested) before a much longer look at the many chocolates.  There was no worry about carrying them in the car as they didn’t last long enough to melt!  We joined a large number of tourists viewing the Curtain Fig Tree, travelled to Yungaburra for a quick look at the Afghanistan Memorial and Lake Tinaroo before arriving at Lake Barrine for lunch at the tea house.  It wasn’t long before we spotted the first Ulysses butterfly and by the time we left, we had seen so many blue butterflies we were becoming quite blasé about them.  Onwards to Millaa Millaa falls for a photo opportunity, along with dozens of young backpackers on a bus tour, and then to our final destination, Paronella Park.

We were greeted in the car park by a very pleasant and chatty staff member, then an equally chatty and pleasant staff member at the door (and another blue butterfly) before joining the ticket queue and then the next tour group.  A very pleasant lady who walked us around the grounds, pointing out the ruins, and an enormous eel, as we learnt about the history of the park.  We were then left to find the turtle feeding area (although there did seem to be more fish and eels than turtles), an absolutely enormous spider (Kathryn found this!), the waterfall and inspect the ruins in greater depth.  It was very pleasant wandering in the shady gardens, although it did make photography a little more difficult.  The visit concluded with a walk across the very bouncy (thanks to Emma) suspension bridge before we returned to Cairns via Innisfail and all the sugar cane fields.