From Airlie to Atherton

Thursday 9^th November

Today, we made the decision to head inland to the Atherton Tableland inland from Cairns.

South of Innisfail, we turned onto the Palmerston Highway, otherwise known as Canecutters Way. There were lots of sugar cane and banana plantations along the road.

We saw our first rain since Sydney; the morning delivered several short, heavy tropical downpours which cleared by lunchtime. But then, we were going through the Misty Mountains!

Our first stop was at the Millaa Millaa Falls, reputedly the most photographed waterfall in Australia. We saw a turtle here, but not the elusive platypus.   

                         

Next stop was Malanda which has a swimming hole by the falls. The information centre here was rebuilt after a bushfire and gives an interesting account of local geology and aboriginal history.

                              

 We moved on to Yungaburra, pausing to do a board walk to the Curtain Fig Tree. This is a big parasitic strangler fig tree whose base is entirely covered by a stringy mass of aerial roots.

                   

Lunch stop was at Lake Tinaroo, 5kms north of Atherton. This is a convoluted reservoir formed by pooling the Barron River's headwaters.

Towards Mareeba, we turned off to the Granite Gorge, where we bushcamped for the night. Here there are rock wallabies, which we hand fed, mingled with peacocks, bush turkeys and a very inquisitive bantam hen! We went for a walk through the Gorge as far as the weir, where we saw a greeny brown snake slithering over a rock (between the two handrail poles). Didn't hang around there!

Ended the day with a barbecue in the camp kitchen.'

                 

Highlight of the day: feeding the wallabies.

Wednesday 8^th November

From Rollingstone Beach, we travelled through more sugar cane plantations and bananas and called in at Tully, where there is a huge sugar mill. We saw the cane train arriving with a new load of cane.

This is the wettest town in Australia with an average rainfall of 450 cms a year. This is marked by a huge 7 meter golden welly boot in the middle of town. 7 metres represents the depth of when the town got flooded some years ago.

We continued to Mission Beach, through an area renowned for Cassowaries but they remained well hidden. We had camped at this South Mission Bay site before, right opposite Dunk Island. It is just on a glorious, golden beach fringed with palm trees and stretches for 14 kms. We had a welcome swim in the pool and a walk along the beach (stinger nets are in place) before our fish and chip supper.

                     

Highlight of the day: Revisiting this campsite.

Tuesday 7th November

Back on the road again, we first called in at Bowen, which featured in the film Australia with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, a seaside town with crocodiles evident.

            

 When we reached Townsville, we drove up Castle |Hill where we got a great view of the city, sprawling across the flat plains and Magnetic Island off the coast.

Moving on, we drove through more sugar plantations, mango orchards and pineapple plantations. 

  

                       

We turned off the highway to Rollingstone Beach parking right on the beachside next to a sign that said: Danger – Saltwater Crocodiles inhabit this area. Fortunately, we only saw a goanna.

Highlight of the day: being camped in such a lovely location.