17th September2011
We had a lazy day today but in the late afternoon drove the 3kms to Yungaburra and visited the amazing curtain fig tree and then went to the platypus viewing platform and were lucky immediately. The platypus put on a good show for us that helped catch some good photos and videos. We then parked in town and took Foxy for a walk through part of the town, across the river via a swing bridge and along the river bank back to the platypus viewing platform and back into town which introduced us to some of the picturesque buildings of the township.18th September 2011
We packed a lunch and drove down to Malanda and visited the Nerada Tea Plantation and Factory. Unfortunately the factory isn’t actually operative at this time of year as it is a seasonal like most if not all agricultural crops. Consequently we didn’t do a factory tour just to only see the equipment whilst stationary but we did look over the showroom displays and had our lunch in their gardens followed by a Devonshire tea as an excuse to try one of the tea blends. The tea Merry selected to try smelt and tasted like tobacco.
We moved on back into the township of Malanda, stopping to take photos of the Johnson River, and continued to the Museum and a tour of the township for more photos. 
We followed this with a short trip out of town to the Malanda Falls which wasn’t as spectacular as we would have liked. It is quite small height wise and not very wide and falls into what was once a natural pool but the Shire has turned into a swimming pool by building concrete sides along each side with ladders for entry/exit.
Also a footbridge has been placed across the narrow outlet of the pool to give access to the other bank. With the flow of water, particularly in the rainy season, the narrow end of the pool has collected a lot of debris that has come downstream. For some reason the Shire doesn’t deem it necessary to clear this rubbish to improve the look of the place and safety of the swimmers. There are a couple of walks that could be interesting but as always ‘No Dogs’ so we returned to Yungaburra and did the riverside walk from the same start point as last but in the opposite direction.
We were fortunate enough to have a long range view of a Tree Kangaroo in a treetop but only feeding, not moving. They are the only one of the roo family that can move their hind legs independently and can therefore walk/crawl rather than hop everywhere, which must help with climbing trees. We also had a brief look at another platypus and the now redundant old iron railway bridge to finish the circuit walk back to the car.
As we entered the drive through the Eacham National park to get to the caravan park we had a Musky Rat Kangaroo cross the road in front of us, and on arrive at our van was greeted by Val and Barry (2) who had arrived from Mission Beach area.
19th September2011
In the morning we took the 3kms walk around Lake Eacham which only offers a view of the lake at the carpark/picnic area. During the rest of the walk you only see glimpses of the water close to the bank as the path is a short distance from the bank with steep slopes down to the water.
However, the walk was through beautiful rainforest with Musky Rat Kangaroos and numerous birds to entertain us, but unfortunately none like to stop and pose for photos and being in a national park Foxy had to stay at home. In the afternoon we drove to the Gallo cheese and chocolate factory but were disappointed with the cheese although merry did buy one overpriced lump. The chocolate didn’t exactly get us excited but again did buy a small amount but the most noticeable aspect was the smell from the cattle yard that permeated through the shop which was not particularly pleasant. We drove on into Atherton to the post office to collect the Bivouac Junction shirts that we had ordered in Charters Towers and a parcel from Perth, but that had not arrived yet. On the trip back home, as we entered the national park we stopped several times to get photos of the Musky Rat Kangaroos on and beside the road and then turned off to explore a side road which ultimately returned us to the entry to the park again for another photo session. It would have helped if other traffic had stopped as well as they frighten the little critters away, but with going round twice we had a reasonable amount of success
Once we had unpacked and checked the shirts we went up to the park office which is also a cafe for a coffee, and were entertained by a bird feeding session with Chestnut Breasted Mannikins, Red Browed Finches and King Parrots, along with the usual Rainbow Lorikeets. 20th September 2011
This time we drove into Atherton to unsuccessfully check on the post office again and then drove north to Tolga and had a quick look at the fine wood craft and then stopped off at the Memorial Park which is both a rest area and a free camp area so long as you are completely self sufficient. We had our picnic here and then made for Mareeba and Emerald Creek Falls.
The general area looks very dry and we expected the falls to be dry but having done the dirt road to get there we walked the approximate kilometre, each way, to the Falls which was on an uphill gradient with 86 steps included.
The falls were putting on a good display despite the lack of rain for some considerable time, and made its way down the rock face to a succession of pools, and was well worth the effort to get there.
When we returned to Mareeba we turned off to visit Granite Gorge which offers several walks of varying length and difficulty, with the start of the walks being on Wallaby Rock where the majority of tourists feed the rock wallabies.
We don’t fed wild animals as we disagree with it in the belief they should feed themself, rather than rely on humans to do it for them and probably with incorrect food. We found a female with a 'Joey' in amongst numerous boys and others demonstrating their ability to stay put on near vertical rock faces, then after spending a while with the wallabies we set out on the difficult walk which involves a lot of very difficult rock clambering exercise and eventually veered off, in the interest of our safety, onto the shorter walk as our agility wasn’t quite up to required standard. Sad to admit it but age tends to require common sense to be used. By the time we had finished the walk we were ready to head home.21st September 2011
We left earl to visit the Lake Eacham Display Centre and then headed to Malanda to try and spot Tree Kangaroos in the Malanda Falls area where they are supposedly seen regularly, but not today. We had our lunch by the carpark and then moved on to the Malanda Museum which is also the visitor centre, and gained some information about the Barron Falls and the Skyrail rides, for future use. We then moved to the other side of town to the Majestic Theatre, which is the oldest continuous running theatre in the country, to watch the Film ‘Red Dog’ as we lived in red dog territory for many years and were members of the Red Dog 4 Wheel Drive Club, and still use the club shirts.
The theatre is very old and still very original and its central bank of seating consists of heavy wooden frames with hessian attached at the low front bar and higher rear bar so that you semi lay in the seat so that your eyes are automatically looking up on an angle at the screen. This overcomes the lack of a rising floor towards the back of the theatre to raise the seating, and allows you to see over the seat in front of you. However, they are very difficult to get out off. We sat on regular chairs at the side of the framed seats which were obviously introduced to increase the audience capacity. There is an array of lighting equipment which indicates that the theatre originally did, and maybe still does, perform live entertainment shows as well as films. We thoroughly enjoyed the film despite spotting the obvious poetic license and padding used to enhance the story, but only people that have spent some time in the area would notice this. It contained silly little things such as showing ore trains with ‘Robe’ on them because at the time those trains had ‘CRRIA’ on them, and they had nothing to do with Dampier and Hamersley Iron where it was based. We returned home and again saw Musky Rat Kangaroos by the road as we drove through the national park to the caravan park.22nd September 2011
Drove to Atherton post office again and was unsuccessful again, so it is looking like the expected parcel isn’t going to arrive.
23rd September 2011
We packed up the camp and moved across town to the other side of Yungaburra to a caravan park alongside the tail end of Lake Tinaroo. It is not as shady as Eacham but is quite a bit cheaper and offer plenty of room for taking Foxy for walks.
24th September 2011
We went through to Mareeba again to visit the Coffee Works that we didn’t have time to fit in last time we were in this neighbourhood. It is designed as an all day event or at least a long time one, with the hope that you will also have lunch there. On arrival you can either do the $19 each coffee tasting, museum, check out the extensive giftware and coffee sale area and use the cafe if required. Or save $19 each and check out the giftware and coffee sales and/or use the cafe. If you choose to do the tasting, you are given a talk about the coffee variations and then let loose on 21 different coffees and about 16 variations of chocolate samples. You also have access to the largest museum collection of coffee pots, grinders, roasters and all things coffee dating back for hundreds of years, in the world. However, all of this didn’t interest Barry to any great extent as he prefers instant coffee, but he did taste several of the coffees to get his money’s worth and did actually enjoy the ‘Swiss decaffeinated‘ coffee and the plain dark chocolate samples.
We left, with our stick-on badges, and went into town for some necessities and then showed our badges for re-entry for lunch. Whilst having lunch we also did more tasting which means we didn’t have to buy drinks with your meal. We found that we will need another trip to Mareeba at some time as there is a military museum, aircraft museum and a heritage museum to look at.
25th September 2011
We went to Atherton for the Tableland Garden Expo which was a load of stalls inside a Hall with a few stalls on the outside, all hoping to sell their wares with some display orchids which may win someone a prize. We were only there for about half an hour which lets you know how good it was. We followed this up with a visit to Crystal Caves gem display which kept Merry occupied for a much longer period whilst Barry elected to stay with Foxy.
No comments:
Post a Comment