Atherton Tablelands

 

This is a beautiful bit of North Queensland, high and cool with rolling hills, mountains and valleys.  We stopped at a strangler fig tree they call the Cathedral Fig, you could step right inside it.  These tropical figs start life as a seedling that’s parasitic on a tree branch, aided by birds eating their red fruit and wiping their beaks (like mistletoe).   They grow and gradually put down aerial roots, strangling and out-competing their host tree.  This one had grown to 150m tall and had a girth of 50m, all intertwined buttresses and sinews.