Created by teutonic plate shifts and volcanic explosions, some as recent as 10,000 years ago, the landscape of the Tablelands is full of geological formations like crater lakes, volcanic cones, gorges and waterfalls. It also left behind pockets of sunken areas full of moisture where beautiful rainforest can be found, as well as fecund soil where everything will grow. From coffee, tea, wine to nuts, fruit and sugar - all is being farmed here.
We had the best coffee since we left Sydney at Mareeba Coffee Works, a plantation/coffee museum/cafe-restaurant. The German born caravan park owners/organic farmers gave us some of their fragrant limes, the size of small apples. They will go down well with our mineral water or our G & Ts perhaps?
Leaving Mareeba we climbed higher into the tableland where we visited the historic village of Herberton. The village from the mining boom of the 1880s has been lovingly restored and filled with period furniture and memorabilia from the late 19th and first half of 20th century. Whether it is the wooden toys, spinning tops and dolls in the toy shop or the old-timer cars and petrol pumps at the local garage, each of the 62 buildings is a museum and treasure grove in itself! I had to laugh at the ad in the pharmacy for children’s teething meds with a drawing of a Crying Charles- look- alike, titled “Prince of wails”.
In the school house library one can browse through old books, cartoons and magazines. One article showed a primary school aged Elizabeth II, who, as it was written, had her inquisitive cheeky nature reigned in by strict royal discipline!
Posters in the military hospital calling for young Aussies to join the war putting unduly pressure on them by proclaiming: Put your surf boards away! Your mates need you at the front!
We could have spend a whole day in the village, but had to find our next camp at ‘Tall Timbers’ in a place called Ravenshoe. If you wanted to annoy the locals at the proudly proclaimed "highest town of Queensland”, you pronounce the name “Raven-shoe”. But it is actually “Ravens-hoe” and tall timbers is it's fame to claim. Especially the valuable red cedar wood the locals call “red gold”.
From here we explored the nearby Millaa Millaa Falls, a popular place to take a cool dip. In the wet season the waterfall is said to cause a deafening noise, but now after a few dry month it seemed like a silvery curtain of fairyland tinkling into the pond below.
In the one- street town of Millaa Millaa we found some very strange street-art. "Please explain!"
Another art work is the statues of the famed explorer of North Queensland, Christie Palmerston and his side kick, aboriginal Pompo.
I don’t know what Palmerston, a very rough fellow who was part villain, part tough explorer and part samaritan to settlers in peril, would have thought of this depiction of himself, not to speak of Pompo!
Walking through beautiful rainforest to Tully Gorge and little Millstream Falls, we came across this little fellow, a very young dingo looking a bit lost.
One of the most amazing natural phenomenas is this huge curtain fig tree. Starting off as a small seedling growing on a host tree, it gradually reached with it’s roots down into the soil, until the original tree was bowed by it’s embrace.
