Julatten in Far North Queensland, Australia-long post and lots of scenery photos

Hello folks. I've been trying to get this post up for three days but I was having some trouble sitting to do so as I had an operation on my knee 9 days ago....nothing scary but I was left with allot of swelling and pain and I have only been able to bend my knee and sit and type at the computer for short periods the last few days. Anywho here I am at last! 

Over a month ago a special little art doll lady arrived here in Julatten, far North Queensland, Australia. Her name is Flat Susan and she has been roaming around the World for over a year. Her adventures started when she left her home at Neet's place in England in her tiny suit case June 21 2013. Susan has been to quiet a few countries and you can read about her venture here

This is where Julatten is on the Australian map. I live up here with my husband Grant and our 18 year old son Tim. We moved here from the Northern Territory just before Christmas. Julatten is gorgeous and our home is on a hill over looking rain forest covered mountains. You can see and read more about our new house in a past post here. Julatten is part of the World Heritage listed Wet Tropics here in Oz and is very green with luscious rain forests, pristine water ways/beaches and glorious one of a kind animals, birds and plants.  

The day after Susan arrived we took her on a bush walk just ten minutes from our home. Its called the Bump Track and its 6kms long. It  was the old road from the coast up to the Atherton Tablelands where Julatten is located. There's Susan sitting on the signs at the start.

Along the track there are "Wait A While" palms. They have these long tendrils with rear facing spikes. If you brush up near then the spikes dig into your clothes and you have to "wait a while" to get them out. Susn was small enough to sit on the spikes with no problem.

About a third of the way along you come across a gorgeous Creek. It's called Robin Creek now.

At the rear there are some rocky little falls. My hubby Grant took Susan up there for a look. Below she is resting on the rocks to the left of the falls.

We had a small cyclone come thru earlier in the year and there were several trees down with large fungi growing on them. Susan thought they would make a perfect chair for herself to sit on.

3/4 of the way along there is a seat so you can rest at the scenic look out. That's the Pacific Ocean out there. The Mowbray River below winds thru sugar cane farms and has a 2-3meter salt water crocodile visible from the highway bridge which is just before the land meets the ocean in the distance.

Once we got to the bottom we drove over the bridge to show Susan the crocodile.

The nex few days Susan and I hung out in my art room. I'm making an art book with transfers in them. Susan was really interested in them and in particular this one I did using clear embossing enamels onto a skeleton leaf.

Every week I do art classes at a local gallery so Susan climbed on my easel to get a good view of a practice painting I was doing while I learn to use acrylic paints. This is a monochromatic study in reds.

On another day we went up to Mount Lewis which is also near my home. We passed this lovely bubbling creek in the rain forest and saw huge ferns and lots of moss covered logs

One evening we had this cute little visitor on the grass outside the house...its an echidna. Susan wouldn't go near it!

On the 3rd of August Susan helped Grant celebrate his birthday. She loved the Lamington Cake

Over the next few weeks we went sight seeing and saw heaps of waterfalls, a nice island or two and some interesting prehistoric looking birds called Cassowaries....the Dad's raise the chicks!

Over at Mareeba  (35 mins from my house) there are cute rock wallabies that are a little too friendly so Susan stayed in my pocket. From there we went down the Palmerston Highway and stopped at Henrietta Creek

Another place not far from our place is Mount Carbine. There is a rugged dirt track up the mountain. We stopped at a little look out for Susan.

The road ends at the McLeod river. Susan had a rest on a log along the side of thr river...can you see her?

There she is a little closer

I carried Susan as it was a long four hour walk. This is taken near where the river drops to a gorgeous valley below

On the way back we went thru the bush so Susan could get up close to some ancient Aboriginal rock art.

It was nearing the time for me to have knee surgery so we did a last trip with Susan to Undara lava tubes which is 259kms  inland and down from Julatten.

We stopped to look at Millstream falls on the way.

We had a little wait before the lava tubes tour so we climbed to a little lookout above Unadara. Susan is hanging off the tree at left...

here she is in a closer view

The lava tubes were amazing and are the longest known in the World according to the guide. There is Grant and my son Tim as they climbed the stairs down into the lava tubes

This was the view from the top of the tube in...they are very large. The pole you can see was put there 40 years ago for scientists to assess if the tube was straining in any way that may imply an imminent collapse.

Susan stayed with Annette as it gets quite dark inside

There are arches where parts of the tube have collapsed

Susan spent her last day helping Annette make a tag for Eliza who also lives in Australia and is the next person hosting Susan

There is so much more Susan could see here and this was the tip of the ice berg...maybe she will come back. For now though she is on her way to Eliza's tucked away in her little suitcase mid air I suppose. Have fun on your adventure Susan.
hugs
Annette In Oz