The Tablelands are one of my favourite places in the world. Stretching off behind Cairns, they're tropical but at enough altitude that you're not swimming through sticky heat all day. The landscape is quietly astonishing--this is an old volcanic field, and though in parts it is as gentle and rolling as the Cotswolds, in others there are views down steep wooded valleys to the coast, and crater lakes are scattered so profusely that some are barely visited. And the wildlife is even more astonishing--a sliver of New Guinea, and quite different from the rest of Australia. Up here you can find tree kangaroos--dun, monkey-faced marsupials with opposable thumbs and prehensile tails; cassowaries--like an emu crossed with a dinosaur, with a bony crest on its head and a deep, iridescent wattle; birds of paradise, otherwise found only in New Guinea; plus freshwater turtles, platypuses, strangler figs, and a thousand other unique and beautiful species.
Yesterday we went for a quick swim in Lake Eacham, a calm, warm crater lake with trees tumbling down its cliffs and pandanus dipping their roots in the water. Anya was getting to the end of her awake time so got a tad grumpy, but came home and had a giant sleep. Later, we took a track down through the scrub behind our cottage to the creek, where the water was as milky as moonstone as it swirled down over rocks to deeper, slower pools. Kate, who loves creek swimming more than anything, let herself down into the water and did some breast stroke, grinning ear to ear; Anya sat on the shore with me, picking up pebbles and trying to work out what the sand tasted like.
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