17 & 18 April 2013 – GBR and Atherton Tablelands

Dad and Josh had plans to go out to the outer Great Barrier Reef today.  Seeing as though it was less than 2 years ago that the four of us went, and due to the high costs, us three girls chose to stay behind to have a quiet day.  We dropped the boys into Cairns bright and early and then returned to do some washing and spend a few hours by the pool.  The boys had a fantastic, but very long, day out on board the Quicksilver boat snorkelling at 3 different spots.  We went to pick them up late in the day and I think Dad in particular was relieved to be back and able to lay down for a while.

Thursday we had big plans to drive around the Atherton Tablelands.  Dad, however, decided that he needed a day of rest.  So, upon dropping him into Cairns to wander the streets for half the day, we fuelled up and headed south and inland.  We got through the initial winding road of Little Mulgrave and witnessed some stunning views.  Our first stop was at a large Cathedral Fig tree, it was a monster.  There were other tourists trying to climb up but it was just too slippery so we gave that a miss.  Not far further along the road was Lake Barrine which had a cosy little tea house and a few ducks roaming around.  We didn‘t stay long before driving through Yungaburra, where we found a dead-end road with a cute little creek.  There was a great swinging bridge to cross the creek which was apparently a good viewing point to spot platypus – but once again we were there at the wrong time of the day and didn’t spot any.  We next stopped at a lovely big Curtain Fig Tree which had strangled its host tree years ago and was now surviving on its own.  The roots all dangle down back to the ground which looks like a curtain.  We were a bit peckish at this stage so headed into Atherton, fortunately for the kids there was even a McDonalds.  We decided to skip the Crystal Caves here (we were already sick of listening to the kids sing their catch phrase after seeing the ad on television) and ventured onwards past many more sugar cane farms to Malanda Falls.  Although it was stunning, I think the thing I most enjoyed about this was that there were only 2 others and they weren’t even swimming here.  Malanda Falls is a fairly wide and not very high waterfall and the water falls into a lovely big pool like area.  It even has ladders on the side to get in and out.  Josh went first to test out how deep it was and the girls quickly followed.  They were keen to get right in there and splash about.  We would have loved to stay longer but we had a lot more to see.  We drove through Malanda where they had a lovely old pub, and a very old picture theatre and then explored the Dairy Centre which was part of the town’s information centre.  Our next detour was along the Falls Circuit, called this due to the number of waterfalls along this stretch of road.  The first is a well-known tourist stop called Millaa Millaa Falls.  This waterfall was formed over 1.5 million years ago and has a drop of over 18 metres.  We tentatively walked in, 1) to watch our footing and 2) as we thought the water would be pretty cool.  Josh on the other hand dived in as per his usual manner and actually swam over to under the waterfall.  When he got back to us he told me that the water was so strong under the fall that he had difficulty getting his breath… no chance that any of us were going to try this.  We had more waterfalls to see including Zillie Falls and Ellinjaa Falls, neither of which you can swim in, but still pretty – so off we went.  There were some gorgeous views travelling further south as we headed for Mena Creek as well as quite a few banana plantations, this is a very picturesque place.  We finally reached one of the places that we had our heart set on, a lovely old castle ruin called Paronella Park, located at Mena Creek.  A Spanish man, Jose Paronella had a dream to build a castle in a special part of Australia and, after about 11 years of hard work, he chose 13 acres near Mena Creek and called it Paronella Park.  After the 11 years, Jose returned to Spain “to collect his lady” (an arranged marriage of course) but this woman thought he’d forgotten about her and had in the meantime married elsewhere with a child.  The mother of this woman offered Jose the younger sister and Jose accepted.  Upon returning to Australia with his wife, Jose first built a cottage and then worked hard to build his dream castle incorporating a grand ballroom and cinema which in time also ventured through to a café for his wife to run.  Jose continued to work hard and added tennis courts with change rooms, a “love tunnel” (where micro bats now live), not to mention the focal point of his yard, a lovely big waterfall with many fish and eels which the visitors are encouraged to feed.  Jose even planted a pathway of trees which were donated by the Queensland government.  He planted them in a way that as you walk this path, the view in the distance is the waterfall.  There had been so much thought and hard work put in by Jose which displayed in every detail.  The grounds were opened to the public in about 1935 but, unfortunately, had since been destroyed by fire, cyclones and flood.  Many years on, in 1993, the property was bought by new owners that planned to preserve what is left of it and to one day restore parts of the buildings.  Thankfully – as this is one place really worth visiting and cherishing… particularly as dreams really do come true!  By the time we finished looking around, it was dinner time so we ducked up to the local pub and had a quick bite before returning to Paronella for the night show.  Music and lights to accompany the viewing of the old ruined castle.  It was then a long drive north back to Cairns but a worthy one.  We even stopped to help some bloke that had broken down along the Bruce Highway.  However, his car was in such a bad way that there wasn’t much we could offer except a bottle of juice to hopefully see the night out for him.