13 May 2013 – Mareeba, Windy Hill, Millstream Falls, Innot Hot Springs

We had a busy day today driving up the winding road to Mareeba.  It is in Mareeba that the Brahman cattle built its foundations, back in 1946.  We didn’t see a lot of the town of Mareeba, except for The Peninsula Pub, but we did call into the Mareeba Heritage Museum.  I must say it was really worth the stop and the kids loved it too.  It’s a museum full of history about Mareeba and consists of over 20 different displays including a motor rail ambulance, a telephone exchange (the kids favourite), timber, tobacco, dairy and mining displays as well as the aboriginal display.  It’s very hands on down to using the telephones, milking the pretend cow, riding in the rail ambulance, boarding the train and drinking at the local pub – oh, and don’t disturb the guy on the dunny!!  Over ten minutes down the road after leaving Mareeba we realised that Josh left his phone there, back we went – some things haven’t changed.  On we went until we reached Windy Hill.  There are 20 large German manufactured wind turbines and they were the first to be constructed in Queensland back in 1999/2000.  Apparently this wind farm produces enough electricity to supply 3,500 homes, therefore reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 0.625 million tonnes of CO2 during its 25 year life.  That’s a lot isn’t it?  Not much further out of town is Millstream Falls so we pulled on in.  The walk down the fairly narrow path to get to the falls was the easy part, climbing back up to the car park took more effort!  However, it was well worth the stop to see, what is reputedly, the widest single drop waterfall in Australia.  We only drove about another 20-30 kms west until stopping overnight at Innot Hot Springs Caravan Park.  There is a small creek that runs alongside the van park called Nettle Creek.  There wasn’t a lot of water in the creek and upon feeling it, Josh advised that it wasn’t that warm.  However, we all went for a dip in the pools of the caravan park.  They pump the hot springs water from this creek into their pools and then let it cool to varying temperatures.  The outdoor pools consisted of a cold pool and another which was like hopping into a lovely warm bath.  They had 3 more pools inside their bath house, of which the kids were not allowed to go.  Perfect!  Josh and I went to test them out while the kids watched from the window.  One was quite cool, another luke warm and the third, scalding hot!  I was able to stand on the first shallow step with one foot before removing it immediately.  I tried a few times and the temperature of the water was unbearable.  My final turn, I psyched myself right up and virtually ran into the pool, sat on the step, jumped straight back up and ran the heck out – I like hot showers but this was ridiculous!  Josh wasn’t keen to dip his toe more than the once…  Dinner tonight was an experiment – we attempted making sushi rolls and Vietnamese rolls.  They didn’t look it, but they were delicious!  There is very little tv reception in these parts so after dinner, we spent an hour in the park’s recreation room watching The Voice before heading in for the night.