The Atherton Tablelands

Staying in Port Douglas, we were quite close to Mareeba and “Coffee Works” which Dunc was dead keen to get to. Rather than take Bertha back up the incredibly steep hill to the tablelands, we figured we’d pop up in the RAV for a day trip. We had intended to combine a trip to Coffee Works in the morning with a trip out to Mossman Gorge in the afternoon, but that was before we got up there. There was so much to see!

We started by calling in past the Golden Drop mango winery, for a tasting for Dunc. Not my thing, but he liked it enough to buy a bottle or two. We then headed straight to the coffee place, knowing that they also had chocolate and milkshakes for the kids. Mareeba was a little further than expected, and the children were very much in need of morning tea when we arrived, so we shuffled the usual arrangements and started with our tastings and free milkshakes BEFORE doing the tour of the museum.

It was wonderful! They had HEAPS of coffees, but also some teas and lots of yummy chocolate flavours. We were given little plastic cups for the chocolates, and each took it in turns to go and fill up ALL four cups. LOL. My favourite chocolates were the chai ones and the peppermint ones, Lexie liked the white ones and Angus was happy to eat anything. Dunc was the only one to really like the chilli!

With Duncan buzzing on his many coffees, we wandered through the museum, learning all about where coffee has come from, how it is made, and the many many different machines that grind, roast and brew. We grown-ups were truly fascinated, and the children were kept amused filling in the quiz in their activity books.

Sated and toting our delicious purchases, we decided to scrap Mossman Gorge and check out more in the tablelands. Dunc was pulled over for a Random Breath Test and we were somewhat concerned that there would be a low reading considering the many wines and spirits he had tasted earlier in the day. But in fact the coffee had negated all alcohol and there was no alcohol detected (I know because I asked!) We headed to the Curtain Fig tree for a short walk in the forest and the hopes of spotting a Cassowary. No luck on the bird front, but the fig was truly breathtaking and a highlight for sure!

We then decided to pop past the local dairy to grab some cheese, and happened to get there at milking time – yippee! It was really interesting to see it done the ‘usual’ way, having only ever witnessed the super automatic robot way down at Pyanganna in Tassie. We watched the two guys working for quite some time, much to Lexie’s disgust – she didn’t like the smell.

We were all tired out by this stage, and the kids were desperate to get back to the pool for a swim. That’s what happens when there’s a waterslide involved!

Cape Tribulation and The Daintree

One of our first day trips was a jaunt on the ferry across the Daintree River. I’d read about the road online and didn’t think Bertha would fit, so a day trip from Port Douglas it was. In hindsight, we actually COULD have gotten Bertha onto the ferry, and we could have driven up to where the 2WD road ends, but it would have been a bit tight on the bendy roads.

We drove right up to Cape Tribulation and did the stunning boardwalk there. There were plenty of people swimming, but it was so remote, and there were croc and stinger signs up everywhere. We decided we would feel better if the kids swam a bit down the coast where we intended to stop for lunch. Sadly it was very much croc country still. The woman at the café had seen a 4m croc swimming past that morning, and ran out to call some backpackers back in. So no swimming there!

We stopped past the Daintree Butterflies and Bugs place, which was actually a bit of a disappointment. We were expecting live insects, it being in the middle of a rainforest and all! But it was just an ENORMOUS collection of preserved insects and, having visited almost every museum we have passed in Australia so far, we have seen plenty of such collections. They DID have an impressive amount of stick insects crawling on the plant on the counter, but I don’t think it was worth our $25 family entry.

We also stopped past a local vanilla pod farm in the hopes of grabbing some new essence (I've just run out of my stock from our farmers market). We learnt all about how vanilla is grown and bought some ground up pods instead of the essence. Having used it already in my baking, I am not at all disappointed - its delicious! We also stopped next door to taste some organic homemade ice-cream which uses the same vanilla. According to the sign, they had 20 odd flavours, but they only offer pre-made pots of four assorted flavours on any day. Today was black sapote, passionfruit, sour sop and wattleseed. We were a bit taken aback at the lack of choice, but got 2 pots to share between us. It was quite nice, but I had MAJOR issues later in the day due to how creamy it was. Damn that gall bladder! At $6.50 per pot it was rather expensive too, we would recommend trying the OTHER ice cream place in the Daintree.

We moved quickly onto the place that WAS worth our money – the Daintree Discovery Centre. We spent a great couple of hours walking around and learning all about the rainforest wildlife. Did you know the female Cassowary’s total input in any part of her offspring’s life is laying the eggs? As soon as she’s done that she buggers off and the male sits on the eggs, hatches the chicks and raises them!

It was a wonderful afternoon there, even if we did have to climb a HUGE tower in the heat and humidity. It was worth it to hear the birdlife up close and see the many different (living) insects.

Dunc and I both felt like we had achieved another ‘big tick’ in getting to Cape Tribulation. One of those places we’ve heard about and now actually gotten to.

Port Douglas

The temperature was heating up, the humidity was skyrocketing, and we were not too keen to freecamp without air conditioning. So we made our way to a CP just out of Port Douglas where Bertha would fit. We were in the ‘overflow’ area, which meant we were all by ourselves in a lower section of the park, but we were only staying a couple of nights. There was a pool with a water slide and a jumping pillow, and an almost-complete water park which the kids couldn’t use yet – damn!

Somehow our “one or two nights” turned into a full week! We had so much to do, starting with some shopping for work clothes for me. We’ve booked a spot in Melbourne for our return and we won’t have our stuff out of storage for a bit. That means I will be a little short of work clothes – somehow I don’t think my shorts, t—shirts and thongs count as “professional dress”! There were some great shops in town and I now have about 10 days of new clothes, which should be more than enough to get me through. Then we had some unexpected news about friends and colleagues who were headed to Port Douglas. One of the teachers at my work was getting married up here, and my dear friends Ann C and Janet C from work were heading up too! So we hung around another day to catch up and have dinner with them.

Then we discovered that the Big 4 we were at was having a big Halloween night on the Friday. There was a BYO everything BBQ with games, dress ups and lollies for the kids, followed by a free pancake breakfast the next morning, all for $20 for the night’s accommodation – wooo hoooo!

After the dinner on Thursday, Janet invited us to the wedding ceremony (which, as a Baptist Minister, she was conducting) at the church. The wedding was on Saturday, after the big breakfast at the Big 4... So you can see how easily our time stretched out. Anna, the bride, was just stunning and the venue was simply beautiful. It was the first wedding Lexie had been to since my friend Priya got married, and she was only 4 or 5 then! We snuck into the back row and the church, and she LOVED seeing the ceremony.

We filled our days with some BIG day trips and were really pressed for time in the end, but I’ll fill you in on those with individual entries.

Cooktown

We were so comfy and Jan (the owner) was so lovely at Endeavor Falls, we decided to stay there for a little longer to allow us to see Cooktown. It was a short 20min drive away, Bertha was well and truly wedged in to her spot, and there was a pool for the kids, so it was an easy choice!

We were there on Market Day, which is always a bonus. Sadly, yet again, it was full of DELICIOUS Asian foods, which neither Duncan nor I feel up to first thing in the morning. I just can’t do laksas or curries before midday. Fortunately we were able to kill some time playing on the fantastic musical boat playground, and we all felt up for a spring roll after that.

We spent hours wandering around the fabulous Captain James Cook Museum, which has activity sheets for kids, popped up to the lighthouse and lookout and stopped for the BEST BURGER IN AUSTRALIA at a groovy little kiosk on the waterfront.

The next day, we were off south – headed to Port Douglas, which is just down the coast. Sadly that road is a 4WD track, and to get Bertha there, we had to go back up on the tablelands and down again. We decided not to load the car again, to make it easier on the engine, as there was a HUGE tough incline up Black Mountain. But first we had to get Bertha out! When Dunc had rung and enquired if we would fit, Jan had told him she had 60 acres and it wouldn’t be a problem. I joked that if it was 60 acres of rainforest it would. Apparently I was not incorrect to joke!

We had made our way in by driving in a tight curve around the back of some units and straight into the site. But to get out, Dunc would have to reverse back around the curve and drive up a ‘road’ covered in overhead branches. He had already climbed the trees to tie back the worst of the branches.

I didn’t film the extrication, as I was busy on the radio at the time, but he did it! I was super impressed and Dunc was mightily offended that I had such little faith in his abilities. He was less offended when I pointed out that he missed the 2^nd palm tree by only1.5cm.

We stopped again at the Palmer River Roadhouse for a break, and it was really satisfying to look at that sign and realize we had achieved our goal and gotten to the tip!