ATHERTON TABLELAND

Drove down to Lake Tinaroo to check out the free campsites at the northern end, but decided not to go there.  Isolated, reached by bumpy road, and nothing to do if you don't have a boat.  We had morning tea at the Platypus day area after climbing a fairly recent staircase to the top of a huge boulder to a "lookout" which has no view whatsoever- big trees all around prevent vision of the lake.  ????


We then returned to Kuranda as we wanted to see the Butterfly place, and so glad we did as it's wonderful.  I adore the brilliant blue Ulysses butterflies, have seen a few individuals in the bush but great to see them close up.  Also the amazingly large birdwing butterflies, also with brilliant colours.  Many other types as well.  One landed on my hand and stayed for a while. (Someone I know would be freaking out at that but I quite enjoyed it.) They are so quick moving it's hard to get photos, I ended up with a lot of photos of leaves and bushes. We had a guided tour of the breeding and rearing rooms, which was quite interesting. 


Then we drove to Barron Falls, where we had a pleasant elevated boardwalk to a place with a much better view of the falls than we'd had from the train.


On the way back to Mareeba, we stopped at a coffee plantation but were a bit disappointed in it.  We were a bit too tired to do the tour and would have liked some information about the coffee but it wasn't available.  We looked it up on the net instead.


Mareeba District's sign calls it "District of Diversity" and that certainly applies.  We've seen roadside signs for avocadoes, zucchini, potatoes, peanuts, and hay, and we see bananas, sugarcane and coffee growing all around.  The people seem to be diverse as well- there's a large Italian influence, reflected in the cemetery which has not only ornate graves, but quite a few mausoleums with Italian names, as do many streets in the area.  There are also some street names which sound more Croatian or Serbian.  There's also a large indigenous population if people you see on the street are anything to go by.  


Tomorrow we've booked into a caravan park at Malanda, as we want to visit Lake Eacham and the surrounding area.