From Kurumba we headed for the Atherton Tablelands. One place worth visiting enroute was the Georgetown Gem Collection. It was amazing. Apparently it started off as a private collection then was gifted to the local shire which now has it all on display. It was well worth a visit.
We
decided to base ourselves at Milaa Milaa, a dairy country area at the
base of the Atherton Tablelands. It was a lovely little caravan park
backing onto a golf course. We found it to be a great base for
exploring the tableland area. Everything was within an easy drive.
The Crystal Cave in Atherton was well worth a visit. We cracked open a couple of agates and had a good look through the gem museum. It was a fascinating place.
Atherton and Mareeba areas are full of art and craft galleries, wineries, wildlife, birds, coffee plantations and tea plantations. We had a lot of fun exploring. We pulled into one winery for some wine tasting and as we parked realised we had a puncture. We decided the wine would get priority so we went in and had our wine before spending quite a while under the car changing the wheel. Got to have your priorities right!
One of the big highlights was seeing the platypus in the wild. Petersons Creek at Yungaburra is a natural breeding ground where the local shire have erected hides around the waters edge. You can view the platypus undetected from the hides and they were fascinating to watch. They are particularly active early morning and later in the afternoon. We also went to Tarzali Lakes which is a privately owned fishing pond, restaurant. He has a platypus conservation program running on the property. The owner took us on a guided tour of the platypus breeding area pointing out the platypus and explaining about the platypus and the conservation program they a running as we went. Very informative.
We went to Hasties Swamp Bird Hide and sat a while watching and photographing the birds. It was the middle of the day so there weren't as many birds as we'd hope. As with the platypus the early morning and late afternoon are the best times.
Milaa
Milaa is dairy country and is bordered by lovely dense rainforest. There
are a lot of walking tracks in the area. We did the Manu Rainforest
Canopy board walk which was quite spectacular. We then followed the
Waterfall Circuit and did some of the short walks to the falls.
We had only planned to stay a few days then move on but we enjoyed the area so much we stayed 8 days there. Even an encounter with a snake didn't put us off. I was outside reading and Paj in the caravan when something caught my eye. A good sized snake was coming towards my chair. It was coming too fast for me to escape into the caravan so I lifted my feet. It kept coming and slithered right alongside my chair and into the bush behind me. Don't think it even knew I was there. Still don't know what kind of snake it was as the park owners weren't sure either. After that we saw them quite a few times slithering around in the undergrowth. That was an encounter we didn't want but an encounter with the local tree kangaroos was something we wanted but didn't get. Unfortunately they are very elusive. There are apparently quite a few resident in the area and there are even bridges for them to get safely across the roads where the roads have gone through their breeding habitat.. The bridges are up at canopy height and look like pipes but made of wire.
Next we will be moving on to Cairns. and exploring the coast and the Daintree Rainforest.
Heading East 2009
Part Six - Atherton Table Lands
