Above: Big crystal geode At Atherton’s Crystal Caves for AUD8380. Spending money on things like this does not facilitate my lifestyle of world travel. Mine is one of non-attachment to objects like these!
At Port Douglas, we’re near the northern limit of our rental car permitted travel zone. With nothing better to do, we thought we’d do more exploration on wheels. Atherton and the tablelands came highly recommended to us and it is at the western boundary of our permitted area.
We set off on a very cloudy and drizzly Port Douglas morning around 0900 for a 1h45 drive to Atherton. It was a very lush windy uphill drive as we went inland initially. Once on the tableland, the weather had cleared. The vegetation here was more typically Australian. Mangoes, bananas and avocados appeared to be the crops of the region. Anthills dotted the landscape here too. There was also a windfarm.
The drive took a little longer as we took a stop at Golden Drop where they made mango wines. Their mango trees were neatly pruned to a consistent height and also sideways. We tried the medium and sweet mango; we both liked the sweet better. The sparkling mango wine was also nice but the mango liqueur was probably the best.
At Atherton, we took lunch at a café which was surprisingly cheap we thought we had been undercharged. In terms of sightseeing, we didn’t do that well. The town’s main attraction was possibly Crystal Caves, an artificial grotto about the size of a city block under the main street, dedicated to crystals. At AUD25, our (dis)interest in the subject matter couldn’t justify the price.
The next attraction, Platypus Park, has various animals and birds including the often elusive platypus. We didn’t feel like playing (or paying for) hide-and-seek with this unusual mammal.
Walking around Atherton, we noticed more Aboriginal people than on the coast, plus some Melanesian-looking people. The latter seemed like Solomon Islanders but they may be Torres Strait Islanders who are the lesser-known native Australians.
The remaining sight was probably the Chinese temple and museum at the far end of town. I saw these from the road and we made our way back to Port Douglas using a different route which was estimated at a slightly longer 2h driving time.
This route departed from our original at Mareeba where I was surprised by the presence of a mosque. I later learnt that the town is home to an Albanian community from between WWI and WWII.
As we left the tableland, the road turned windy. It was beautifully lush and misty, being part of the Kuranda National Park. We joined the coastal road just north of Cairns for the drive back up to Port Douglas.
As the weather on the coast had improved, we stopped for tea at Ellis Beach en route before returning to our hotel for a swim. Here we saw a contraption by the beach that we had seen before but didn’t understood. Upon enquiry, we found out that the unfurl stinger nets to protect swimmers against jellyfish when in season.
We finished our day with a simple dinner again of canned soup (with a mashed head of broccoli) and sandwiches filled with tomato, avocado and cheese.
Contraption for stinger nets.