Yungabarra

Tuesday, 19 June 2018

Green Tablelands

Strawberries with sugar

Lake Tinaroo from our window

Still Lake Tinaroo

Sunrise

Waiting for the guests to say goodbye

Fresh tribute

Preparing ...

Yungaburra flowers

Not having unhitched the car from the caravan during our stay at Undara, it didn’t take too long to be on the road early on Monday morning, heading for our final stop at Yungaburra, before reaching Cairns.  Although clear and sunny, the southerly wind was very brisk and created a decent headwind for the first part of our journey; once we turned north, we then enjoyed the benefits of a tail wind.  Once again, the road climbed gradually until Innot Springs, then it was a fairly sharp climb to 1050 metres at Ravenshoe.  After passing the wind farm, the countryside continued to be hilly and windy as we started the descent to the Atherton Tableland.  What a change in the country today – savannah to rain forest to the lush, green hills and Friesian cows!  And sugar cane!!!

We are spending three nights at the Lakeside Caravan Park at Yungaburra, on the banks of the very full Lake Tinaroo and directly opposite the Afghanistan Avenue of Honour.  We have a site which looks straight down the lake – very pleasant aspect and especially beautiful in the early dawn light.

Unfortunately, there are a large number of dogs in the park and no one seems concerned about enforcing the regulations – dogs are allowed roam and we have a particularly nasty specimen in the caravan next to us which Mummy allows to run free and do as he likes.

We had a quick trip to Atherton after lunch for fuel, stopping at a roadside stand advertising avocadoes, only to find they were all gone.  So we consoled ourselves with a stop at Shaylee Strawberry Farm and had one of their home made ice creams each instead.

Tuesday was spent waiting for the only washing machine in this section of the park to be available and then discovering only a couple of lines were free on the clothes line – not good when it was sheets and towels day as well.  A line was tied under our awning and the clothes horse resurrected from under the bed.  The stiff southerly breeze (freezing cold, southerly breeze actually) helped with the drying.

We visited the Gallo Dairyland, with its very distinctive 300 cow odour, for lunch (fortunately the smell doesn’t intrude indoors) and felt it would be very rude to leave without purchasing some of their home made chocolates.  Following a drive around some of the back rounds, we enjoyed a walk around the pretty Yungaburra village, with its gorgeous hanging baskets and preparations for Pink Ribbon Day in full swing.