Cairns – Milla Milla Falls

After an early start to the morning, we pulled out and found some coffee before heading off. We were glad to be finally heading south. We followed the Bruce Highway to Gordonvale and then we turned off and headed up the hugely steep hills into the Atherton tablelands and the ranges that make them so perfect for farming. We stopped at a really cute town called Yungaburra, which was ever so cute.

It was filled with gorgeous heritage buildings set in lush green surrounds. It seems like many have moved here from Sydney to escape the rat race. But the prices were quite high considering it was just a tourist town, but surrounded by waterfalls and the top end of Lake Tinaroo, a very popular tourist location, a huge lake that people fish and boat on. So there really is lots to see and do. There is also lots of platapus located around this area, so great viewing if you have the time to sit around and wait for their reclusive creatures to show themselves. We enjoyed a great lunch and then headed off in search of the Narada Tea Farm about 20kms outside of Malanda.

I have to say that it was a fabulous tour. I learned a lot about tea growing and also had a tour of the only automated tea processing plant in the world. It was quite interesting, as they had to design and manufacture all the equipment for their plant as there was no available anywhere in the world as the rest is all hand picked. With our labour costs, its prohibitive, but its still really interesting none the less. We also sampled some of their tea leaves. They only sell tea bags in the supermarkets, but at the shops they also sell tea leaves, which are considerably more interesting and yummy to drink. We stocked up the supply cabinet with our faves and headed off into the sunset. We drove around for some time trying to locate a lookout. In doing so we ended up in Topaz. An amazing little place in a very remote corner of the tableland.

Surrounded by many rolling green untouched hills, apart from what has been obliterated for their dairy farms. As the road got thinner and thinner we realised we weren’t going to find the lookout, but still had a great drive around. We ended up finding ourselves to the Milla Milla Falls National Park. We camped there for the night. I have to say it was the best nights’ sleep I’ve had in ages. We had the place to ourselves. It was just the three of us in the jungle!