Bean to Mareeba

Today we packed up the car as it was time for us to leave Daintree and head to Chillagoe in the Atherton Tablelands. The mobile phone coverage is nonexistent here in Chillagoe also which is why this didn’t get uploaded until we got to Atherton. This time the ferry trip was very different with only ours and about six other cars on the ferry so we had a better view of the river as we went across and it loaded and took off very quickly too. We stopped in Mossman to go to a shop and have a coffee, make some calls before we lost mobile reception etc then headed to Mareeba where we went to a coffee plantation called Jacques Coffee Plantation. There we saw a video, went on a tour of the plantation where we saw not only the crop growing but also the harvesting and processing equipment. James Jacques invented the machine harvester when he began coffee farming in Australia because he knew that it was very labour intensive otherwise and labour would not be as easy or cheap to come by here. The family had many setbacks in their quest to make a profitable business of coffee growing but through incredible perseverance they have managed to do so. At the end of the tour we had our ‘free’ coffee and coffee liqueur and bought some ground coffee and liqueur for home as well since we liked what we tasted.
Following this we posted our coffee & liqueur home at Mareeba because we really don’t want to be carting more stuff around Australia with us, then headed toward Chillagoe. That was a different drive than any we’ve had before – the road was fairly narrow and along the way we found cattle on the road several times with no warning signs preceding them like we had come across in other parts of the country. The cattle of course are the big Brahmans and they don’t seem the least bit fussed by passing cars, in fact other cars coming the other way roared past not seeming to care if a cow might suddenly decide to step out in front of them. Perhaps these were locals and know something we don’t know. The only road kill we saw seemed to be kangaroos, wallabies etc. The other interesting thing was all the anthills or termite mounds along the way. Sometimes there were heaps of really small ones in the land on both sides of the road and depending on the colour of the soil in that area they were orange or a lighter sandy or grey colour. We got the impression that there are a lot of termites around these parts. The scenery was quite remarkable as we got closer to Chillagoe with some amazing dark grey rock formations jutting up out from the green of the trees and other vegetation.
We found our accommodation straight away and went to book in only to find one of our hosts about to feed five little joeys of various species that had been orphaned when their mothers were killed on the roads. It turns out that as well as running a cabin style accommodation here, Caroline is a wildlife rescuer. She told me that we missed seeing a wedge tailed eagle a couple of weeks ago that had a broken leg. We were invited to join the other guests at 6.30pm for drinks before dinner at 7pm which we did. There were three other guests and it was a pleasant evening with delicious lamb roast cooked by Gary and lots of interesting conversation. Later on, Gary brought out two of the joeys for us to hold and they were just as cute as can be, trying to hide in their ‘pouches’ and even sucking on the fabric of the pouch like they would be suckling inside their mother’s pouch. Did we take photos? You betcha!
Tomorrow we are going on a tour of one of the caves and the general area with Gary before we head off to Atherton where we are having a barbecue dinner with Fin’s cousin, Ian and family