Atherton: dodgy Chinese food, shaky wifi

We pick up our rental car at the airport in Cairns. We are now the proud drivers of a bright red, low riding Ford Falcon, complete with rear spoiler and huge chrome exhaust pipe. Veeery stylish! Parting wisdom from the Hertz guy, Aussie style:"Stick to the left and don't run over any kangooroos, and you'll be right." And off we go to the Atherton tablelands! Beautiful scenery, with hills and rolling fields. A bit like England would be if it'd ever stop raining there.

First glimpse of the Southern night sky is very confusing. Scorpius and Sagittarius are visible, but under a whole different angle than we're used to. Milky Way is very impressive though, and I'm thrilled to see the Magellanic Clouds for the first time in my life. A bit annoyed at first to see light pollution. But hang on, there are no cities in that direction! Turns out to be the sky's own luminescence. Way cool!

In the middle of the night Heleen suddenly gets really sick: cold sweats, pulse racing at 100 beats per minute,... Probably an allergic response to the Chinese food we had the night before. First stop in the morning is the doctor's office. Fortunately no lasting effects, so we can continue our holiday.

Next stop: Lake Barrine, aka A Little Piece Of Paradise. A huge lake surrounded by rainforest. We see a lot of really cool animals: Boyds Water Dragon, lots of birds, and a really big, black snake! No sign of cassowaries, tree kangooroos or amethystine pythons though. Also no dropbears yet. We do get to see the Curtain Fig tree. Really impressive!

Dinner in the local pub, where 80% of the menu is crumbed. As in crumbed fish, crumbed chicken, crumbed lamb, crumbed steak (wtf??). A local coverband plays songs which are almost entirely but not quite unlike the original. All in all, the most colourful pub we've been to. Jolly good fun!

Next day we stop by some waterfalls on our way to Daintree, where the real rainforest begins.