The Atherton Tablelands is a large area to the southwest of Port Douglas, just on the other side of the Great Dividing Range. On our next day off, this was our elected destination for the day. We made the pretty, yet nauseatingly windy, drive over the mountains to the first quaint village of Kuranda. Accessible by a train from Cairns (which would have been a much better journey for my stomach), it's a quaint village town with a local market, shops, and scenic views. Our stop here was for the first waterfall of the day, Barron Falls. A nice boardwalk through some woods led to a lovely lookout of the very large falls:
Moving on, our next stop of the day was further south in a town called Mareeba, known as the coffee-growing capital of Australia. There is a large local business there, called Coffee Works, who grows and produces a large number of coffee blends for the Far North Queensland region. Entry into the museum also allows you to taste every single type of roast they produce, as well as all of the chocolate they make as well. Sounds like a good time to me! After trying heaps of different style coffees and chocolates, we checked out the espresso machine museum as well. Some guy spent the bulk of his life traveling the world collecting different espresso and coffee machines from different eras and places. It was an interesting, eclectic exhibit, and after spending some time walking around it was time to grab some lunch--and a coffee, of course.
The next stop as we headed south was just outside a town called Yungaburra. One of the more picturesque towns in the Tablelands region, but we didn't actually head into town--rather we stopped just outside to see a great example of a curtain fig tree. Now, we had seen strangler figs in our walk through the Daintree and were told the tablelands had some even larger. Indeed, this one was particular large. It had begun around one tree, till that one toppled over, swallowing a second tree, and landing on the third. The result was a very large curtain fig:
After looking at trees, it was time to chase some more waterfalls! We headed further south where we could take a turn off that became a waterfall circuit. The first one we stopped at was very nice, as there was a large swimming hole in front that would be very nice on a hot day. However, being in the shade for the most part and the fact that the day was only about 75*, we decided against taking a dip in the very cool water. Reminded me a lot of our little swimming hole in Hawke's Bay, though.
Next we headed to another falls where you could really only get a glance at the top. The road leading down and to the next falls was closed, so after this we had to call it a day. Lots of waterfall spotting!
Now, the highlight of the day came at the very end. I had read in our travel book that there was a platypus viewing station just outside Yungaburra along a river. So we headed back north to the viewing spot to try our luck! We arrived at about 4:30, far too early as you normally have to wait till dusk. So, we waited. Several people came, stopped for all of 5 seconds, and then left. Not going to spot a platypus that way, I assure you.
We headed a bit further down the river to a path that led under a bridge. It was a bit dark underneath, and we figured we would have a better chance here. We waited for a while and soon a foreign woman joined us in our stake out. It was soon interrupted when she pointed out that a snake was slithering its way toward us on some rocks. Our first snake spotting in Australia! (In the wild that is). We caught a picture of it, though John and I still debate about whether or not it was poisonous. I think not, but either way we didn't stick around to find out!
We headed back up to the normal viewing platform and knew we were in the right place when a small tour bus pulled up with people wanting to catch a glimpse of some platypus. It was getting darker and closer to the time when they come out, and the tour guide sent a group of them to the spot down under the bridge. I didn't hear any screams so I assume the snake had come and gone, but to our luck they must have scared the platypus in our direction! All of a sudden we saw one swimming in the water!
Now, John was lucky enough to catch some video of this elusive and fascinating creature!
It was such a great end to our day and we could finally cross platypus off the list! Now we just need to spot an echidna, tasmanian devil, and a dingo and our glimpses of native Australian animals in the wild will be almost complete.
Unfortunately we had the long and twisty, nauseating road back to Port Douglas ahead of us, but we treated ourselves to some yummy kebabs to end our day.
Gotta love Chasing Waterfalls.
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