Thursday 30th August - to Ellis Beach via Tablelands
Wild Carol does Australia
John and Fiona Fraser
Thu 30 Aug 2018 16:00
145 34.986E
Feeling virtuous John paid $20 to do the yoga session on the beach while Fiona ran up the steps then 2 miles along the beach and back.
We drove over the mountains and through the flat Tablelands landscape, partly down the road we’d already been on when heading north to Cooktown. We stopped at Mareeba at the Information Centre/museum/coffee shop for a coffee and bacon toastie. The museum covered local history, looked interesting, but we didn’t linger. We took the road to the Lake Tinaroo dam, past Kairi. We stopped at the dam for photos and started along the Danbulla Forest track around the lake but it soon turned to dirt and we turned around as we’re not allowed on dirt roads with this van.
We carried on to Yungaburra, stopping at the curtain fig tree. Yungaburra turned out to be just as quaint as Lonely Planet says. We bought some stuff from the butcher, talked to a lady in the info centre whose Dad was from Banchory and was totally familiar with the Falls of Feugh and Scolty Hill. Fi browsed in the gift shops then we headed for the creek walk hoping to see some platypus, the main reason for stopping here.
We didn’t have to walk far along the creek before John heard a sound in the foliage at the creek edge and a duck-billed head popped up right at his feet! The camera was clicking immediately! Meanwhile Fi had moved further along the creek and found her own platypus. Much smaller than expected, only about 1ft long.
We spent a while spotting these engaging beasts, also turtles. We spotted lots of turtles on some rocks in the middle of the creek and moved closer to the bank to get a better view. As we did so we heard a rustling in the foliage and a small brown snake swiftly moved a few feet then froze. We beat a hasty retreat! Don’t know what kind of snake it was but we’d been told to stay clear of the brown ones!
We crossed the creek over a suspension bridge, past an old boiler that had been used to powere a steam pump to lift water to the station a hundred years ago, then back through the village along a street lined with picturesque buildings, including the police station and post office.
The afternoon was wearing on so we headed off, along the spectacular Gillies highway, stopping along the way to look at another huge fig tree, this time the ‘cathedral’ fig, named because of its size.
It was dark when we finally reached Ellis beach but we went straight to our old spot and cooked the crumbed chicken from the Yungaburra butcher.
Sugar cane everywhere.
Sugar cane loading station - the trucks bring their loads here to be transported by narrow gauge railway to the factory to be turned into sugar
Lake Tinaroo
Irrigation canal coming out of the dam
Dam outlet
The ‘curtain’ fig tree
Yungaburra
Platypus!
Turtle
The post office
Yungaburra street
The local pub
