Leaving On A Jet Plane !

The Barron Gorge + first Cyclone

The Barron River flows from the Tablelands down over the Barron Falls near Kuranda and on down through Kamerunga, under the Cook Highway to the sea.

The falls themselves are not as spectacular these days during the dry season as they have a Hydro Electric Power Station (the latest one built in 1963 but there was one there before that too I believe. Looks like something out of a 60's Bond film don't you think ?) that diverts the water down a tunnel from a dam above the falls, althought I believe during the wet season the volume of water means that the dam overflows so looking forward to that.

Anyways, we walked up the gorge last saturday and had a picnic near the first lot of falls we came to. Big swimming hole there too, saw some fish plus lots of little lizards and hundreds of dragonflies. These aren't the falls themselves but further downstream.

Link to  pics including a couple of the actual falls taken from the top.

I did and still do intend to walk up the gorge as far as the falls proper ! one day !

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y126/cadman342001/Barron%20Gorge/

This weekend has sen the first cyclone of the season off Cape York - "Guber" it was called which is apparently a boy's name (they go boy/girl/boy/girl etc.). Category 3 but now downgraded to Cat 1. So we've had quite a bit of rain over the last couple of days which was nice for a change and good for the desert we laughingly call a lawn ! Lots of squished cane toads on the road last night ! They light up in the headlights, their whiteish fronts glow as they sit kinda upright in the cycle lanes. people here swerve to try and squash them. Had to fish a couple out of the pool last night too ! they were doing laps until I disposed of them. not something I like doing but necessary as they are very bad for the local fauna.