Awake at 6:45 , seems to be the time for it , rolled over & went back to sleep for another hour . Breakfast done , ute packed , off we went to Mareeba Wetlands - about 10 klms north, then 7 klms west of Mareeba , down a dusty gravel road . We drove past an awful lot of sugarcane on the way out . The mountains in the background are toward Atherton .
Something didn’t feel quite right , as we were driving out , we were driving towards a hill - now to my way of thinking a wetland is low lying country , not hills . We skirted the edge of the hill and wound our way in to the parking area , then walked 100m in to the cafe . It overlooks a very large dam - great outlook !! One of the staff gave us a bit of a rundown on the place - apparently they wanted to grow sugarcane on the property , but the soil wasn’t good enough for it , they had a think and decided to make a man made wetland , consisting of 8 dams around the property , with walking tracks , bird hides , a cruise around the first dam and canoe hire , also guided tours / safaris around the lot , there is also accomodation and its all ECO friendly !!!
One of the highlights for us were the Gouldian Finches in the aviary - they are endangered species , and this is part of a breeding program !! The colours of the birds is spectacular !!!
This country is termite paradise , with hundreds / thousands of termite mounds , from 50mm high to over 2m , not as high as further across the top end , but plentiful .
The wetlands didn’t do it for us , they wanted to charge for everything , even a bush walk , so we headed out to our second destination - Granite Gorge . We had to go back through Mareeba and head to the south west about 12 klms . The road here was also taking us towards some hills , we hoped they had decided to put the road over the top and have a lookout - we were in luck , thinking we would get a better view of the land around Mareeba - luck ran out , the trees have overgrown the lookout and obscured the view - bugger !!! The funny feeling continued as we got closer to Granite Gorge , it just didn’t seem right - Granite Gorge Nature Reserve - we continued . The grevilleas on the side of the road were just starting to flower - beautiful orange brush flowers .
Arriving at the turn off for Granite Gorge , we drove in to find a caravan park , with mountain bike tracks , huge granite boulders and some cabins & caravans . We had a quick look - they also wanted to charge you to go in and use the walking tracks .
We left and decided we would do our own driving tour of the area , and what a great idea that turned out to be - no guides , we drove past banana plantations , mango plantations , coffee plantations , sugarcane , watermelons , cattle & avocado’s , found the tablelands sugar mill and more . We even drove past Aunt & Uncle - mountains that is . Even went past Mt Uncle Distillery !!
Mt Aunt
Mt Uncle
The banana harvest is happening now , and sugarcane is also being harvested - they grow the sugarcane in stages , you can find it in many different stages of its growing cycle - from just planted right through to ready for cutting .
We followed the irrigation canal that transports water from Lake Tinaroo to outlying areas . The road took us around mountains & valleys and over Walsh River several times , before coming back to the Mareeba Dimboola Rd . We stopped and had lunch beside Walsh River , it is clear green water , and would be awesome on a hot day .
Walsh River
Mango Plantation
Different grass seed colours
Some of the mountains we have been driving around
The rodeo grounds are on Mareeba Dimboola road , so we head back in to town to do our shopping .
The drugs are slowly starting to work on my head cold , but a headache is coming on so a lie down is in order .
We've had a good day on our own little tour , we learnt more from it than from the others !!!
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