If you are of a certain age and you can remember Dragnet on TV, you will probably remember Sgt Joe Friday and the classic line, “Just the facts, Ma’am”.
And that is exactly what you are getting today. Just the facts.
No funny anecdotes, no witty wisdom, and nothing for you to ponder and reflect on. Absolutely no educational or nutritional value.
Just the facts.
Today was a driving and exploring day. We were keen to get up and explore the Atherton Tablelands. Let Elsie and those horses run free for the day.
We rolled out of Fishery Falls just after 8.30, and pointed Elsie’s nose north and west. I’ve had a few issues with Jolene lately – she sometimes takes us on a wild goose chase – but we gave her the benefit of the doubt.
About 10km north, then Jolene told us to turn to the left (west) and start up the hill.
And what a climb it was. More twists and turns than an Agatha Christie novel.
It would have been a lovely (= fun) road in the Ferrari, but unfortunately we left the Ferrari at home this trip 🙁
First stop Youngaburra.
And what a pretty little place that is. RV friendly, too. We’d left Percy behind, but everything was well signed and easy to navigate around.
And what a pretty little place it is. I’ve said that before.
One of the places that I was keen to visit is Herterton. If you Google “Top 10 Queensland towns to visit before you die”, Herberton is right up there. Maybe not before you die, but … well, before you die.
It was also a pretty little town, but nowhere near as nice as Youngaburra. RV friendly again, but it seemed that many places in town were either closed, or they were closed down (for good).
We found an Op Shop that was open and bought some books we liked for a few dollars.
We had morning tea – coffee and a scone – at a little coffee shop. It seemed as though there was a meeting of the CWA going on at the other side of the coffee shop.
Pretty feisty, those CWA ladies.
We did the walk around town, but we were on our way again pretty quickly.
From there we wanted to see the “highest road in Queensland”, which was only a few kilometres down the road. Except that Jolene – stupid Jolene – took us for a lovely drive down a picturesque road that added about 20 unnecessary kilometres to the drive.
Seriously!
MBW was keen to go and look at a diary because – let’s face it – we do like cheese. One diary that she wanted to see was closed that day, so the second choice was at Millaa Millaa … so off we went.
It was a fizzer. No cheese tasting available, and a bus load of tourists turned up a few nanoseconds before we did, so we couldn’t even get anyone’s attention.
So instead we went for a drive to look at Millaa Millaa Falls.
Shame that we hadn’t taken our swimmers, but then the people getting out of the water seemed … cold. Very cold.
So lucky we didn’t go in.
But we took some photos and had lunch in the carpark.
Next stop Malanda, and specifically to see the Malanda Falls. Not as nice as Mliiaa Millaa, but nice anyway.
Another Op Shop but nothing of interest.
We were starting to feel a little weary, and these little country towns – as pretty and delightful as they are – all start to blend into one another after a while.
We needed to head home via Youngaburra anyway, so we went to the platypus viewing platform to see if we could spot ourselves a platypus.
No luck 🙁
And home. Back down the windy and challenging road down the hill.
One of MBW’s friends from election work (Dianne) is in Cairns for a few days, and MBW was keen to catch-up with her. So we got into some warmer clothes and headed the 45 minutes back up to Cairns and met Dianne for dinner at Muddies on the Cairns esplanade.
Home for coffee and bed, and that’s about the day for us.
We had a lovely time and took lots of pictures. Tomorrow we are doing the KSR which should be fun.
Ciao
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