The Atherton Tablelands

 

We are in the Atherton Tablelands staying in our van at Lake Tinaroo. This lake provides irrigation water for areas west of here. It's cooler than the coast and woke up and didn't want to get out from under the  doonah, but the day was warm and we're still in shorts. The lake has barramundi but we're not fisherman so they are safe from us.

We did a bit of a circuit drive. Herberton is a town built on steep hills. Remembering to use the hand brake would be an important L plate driver lesson. The town started in the 1880s after the discovery of tin. Nowadays it is a quaint village with a mining museum ...and guess who went there!!?

Ravenshoe ..pronounced ravens hoe...claims to be Queensland highest town at 930 metres above the sea and is surrounded by spectacular scenery: dense rainforest, subtropical flora and rolling hills. We travelled on a very narrow twisty road through all the previous list of scenery and despite signs about tree kangaroos and cassowary we saw neither.

 

Think we'll leave Queensland without seeing a crocodile or the other two animals. Actually haven't seen a cane toad either ....well maybe only a couple of desiccated ones on the road in the previous caravan park. Saw a flying fox hanging on the power line crossing the main street in Mossman. Today saw some gorgeous wallabies.  

On the way home we went up a lookout and there was a great panoramic view. Then it was back to the lake for dog walking and paddling

Lake Tinaroo

 

 

Our unfortunate departure present to the camp was piercing the water main with an annex peg ...water leak...leaving some of the camp without water. Well if they put us both on a bus site and don't actually indicate  waterlines, let alone leave much room to put out the annex, it will happen.  Oh well! Might add it has been the most expensive place we have stayed on the trip. On the plus side, it was the only place where we could have a dog, the owners were very helpful and it was in a great position on the Barron River. Delicious Italian restaurant next door where I had the best ever gnocchi ..like little pillows of fluffy deliciousness!

Then up and over "the mountain". We'd experienced it before by train and cable car. The road gains height quickly with plenty of twists and turns and a couple of hairpin bends but "good little vehicle" towed us up no problems. A gorgeous view out across Cairns and then over the top to Mareeba where we stopped briefly. Before that we went to Jaques Coffee Plantation for some delicious coffee.

 

A group of cyclists are doing a charity ride across to Karumba ( 700 plus km) on the Gulf. In a week!!! Not so easy to get last though. There are about 200 plus of them. Listening to our radio some people are not impressed. Lots of expletives and whinging about who the road is for...

We said a second goodbye to my sister Jenny and Kevin. It was lovely to spend some time Caravanning together..they're heading back to Cooktown.

We have made our way to lake Tinaroo on the Atherton tablelands..Greg happily unpeeled the kayak from its covers and got onto the lake and I walked Rifter. This lake was built in 1959. The caravan park is spacious, relatively empty and full of birds. A bit tight getting onto the site though and we are on a bit of a hill, but Greg is good at sorting that out. We're here for three nights. There are beautiful curlews wandering about the camp.

Port Douglas

 

We have got as far north as we are going. It's  like we are the top of the tallest tree looking down thinking .....NOW .... "Gulp"...we have to get back. After today we are slowly heading home southwards and through an inland route via Queensland, NSW and SA and back across the Nullabor.  So after two months we have travelled 12700 kms. We won't take as long to get back.

So......we got to Mossman, just north of Port Douglas. Missed out on Mossman Gorge and the Daintree rainforest as they're both national park areas but we managed to see lots of rainforest along the way so it's OK. We need to save something for another trip.

I can understand why Port Douglas is such a tourist mecca, being so close to both the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree. So it's full of lovely accommodation, shops, restaurants and tourists. A busy place. Mossman township (sugar area) wasn't so appealing but there was a huge quilt show I checked out. The weather was absolutely gorgeous.

The trip up Captain Cook highway from Cairns to Port Douglas is spectacular. It hugs the coast on one side and hills and rainforest of the Great Dividing Range on the other. Very scenic with plenty of beaches to explore.

Rifter almost got eaten on one beach when a huge dog ( not on a lead) came racing up as his owners called out ...."sorry he's a bit vicious" the only damage done was scratches to Greg's arm because Rifter wanted to get down and play. 

Back to the van park to find that they have squeezed another van behind us... Barely room to park our vehicle now. It's slightly claustrophobic... I need more space!! Decided it definitely was time to go after some nosy neighbour complained to us that Rifter wasn't on his lead....as if ?!? Then sent her husband over to check and he proceeded to tell Greg that his evening meal was "huge" Again...as if ?!?!
So we leave the beautiful coast tomorrow and heading inland

Cairns

It was time to pack up and leave Innisfail and our river side caravan park. So we travelled through more cane fields, through Cairns ( not easy towing a van) and north to Lake Placid  caravan park. We have spent the past few days exploring Cairns.


We booked into the caravan park for five nights. It wasn't that easy to find places that would take dogs so we are squashed in but its quiet. My sister and her husband are travelling too and they're staying here,  so its been nice doing things together.

We went along the coast to the seaside suburbs  with beautiful beaches such as Palm Cove, Yorkeys Knob, Kewarra and Trinity Beach. A strip of sand (not white though) fringed with vegetation, including lots of coconut palm trees, a narrow road and on the other side numerous hotel, backpackers, resorts. All the accommodation options you could wish for and of course eating places. AND plenty of tourists. I love these huge paperbark trees. Returned home via a wetland park but as we had to leave the dog in the car and it was warm we didn't do it justice. A board walk over mangroves and lots of rustling in the bush. Bit creepy. Nice lake,  not so many waterbirds but I think it was the wrong time of the day. The next day we went onto the centre of Cairns and walked along the wharf before dropping the vehicle off for a service. We saw a Curlew in the park at the centre of Cairns and he posed for a photo. Today we did the “must do” trip to Karunda. We travelled up on a train line built in 1885 by about 1500 men armed with only pick and shovels (thank mining for the line). The line has 15 handmade tunnels, 55 bridges and 98 curves. It travels through the world heritage listed wet tropics, up Barron River Gorge to Kuranda 320 meters above sea level. Waterfalls, ravines, dense rain forests..beautiful. We wandered around the historic village of Karunda with markets opened daily to cater for the hoards of tourists that come each day. Originally the town had lots of hippie artists and now although the original markets are still there with local craftspeople there are many other tourist type shops as well. We had yummy Thai pumpkin soup for lunch.... in the hippie part.    
A visit to butterfly house was one of the highlights of the day. All the local rainforest butterflies species are there including the electric blue Ulysses butterfly and the fluoro green and yellow Cairns Birdwing. They were awesome and for some reason they were attracted to my green t-shirt as the photos show. To finish the day off we returned via the 7.5 km sky rail above the rainforest. The tallest tower is 40.5 metres above the ground. All the towers were helicoptered in to place without disturbing the ground, no roads were built.

Waterfalls

The day started out cloudy with a very heavy dew, it's dripping off everything. Feels like it has rained. We are in a caravan park in Innisfail for two nights. It's wedged between the Bruce Highway (which is very busy) and a big tidal river- the Johnstone. Luckily we are on the riverside so it's a bit quieter. Grey clouds overhead but the forecast is for about 26 and no rain.

My breaky included banana ( those yummy tiny ones taste delicious), some mango ( unfortunately it's not mango season but earlier I bought a tub of frozen mango at a roadside fruit seller and it's been delicious), passionfruit, yoghurt and muesli. Yummo!!

Innisfail is an interesting town. We could check out the CBD on Sunday afternoon. Always a good time as there is very little traffic. The city centre was destroyed by a cyclone in the early part of last century and rebuilt in the Art Deco style so the building are amazing. It's claim is that it is the Art Deco city of Australia. Of course Took more happy snaps.

At dusk yesterday we drove out to Flying Fish Point. Lots of people were fishing, locals I guess, ignoring plenty of warnings about crocs. And NO, not named after flying fish. Rather some explorers ship.

Today was about waterfalls and rainforest in the Wooroonooran National Park. The tourist brochure's description of "densely forested foothills, slopes and cloud-swathed peaks of mountains including Queensland's highest peak Bartle Frere" was pretty accurate. 

First stop was Mamu rainforest canopy walk. Our wonderings about how to do this with a dog in tow were answered by the welcoming aboriginal guide Phil at the gate who offered to watch Rifter while we went in. It was excellent and we spent over an hour walking about, some of it on a tree top walk. Then we talked bird watching with Phil who is a bit of an expert.

Then via a long steady climbing road we arrived at a small village called Millaa Millaa and bought delicious homemade soup and rolls for lunch. The clouds were still very low and it was misty, but not cold. The soup hit the spot.

On the way home we visited 4 different waterfalls. All lovely. I'll let the photos tell the story. Saw bush turkeys at a couple of spots and some other interesting birds but they are hard to spot in the dense forest. Also a bus load of backpackers trying out the falls...but that looked pretty chilly.

We passed a tea plantation and bought some of the produce, had Devonshire tea on the way home at a bio-dynamic dairy and bought home some yoghurt and milk. Then took a winding road...well more like a track, through banana plantations (on the hills) and more sugar cane on the flatter areas.