Part 7 - Mission Beach and Atherton Tablelands

We headed south to Mission Beach and the Atherton Tablelands for a few days before returning to Cairns for our flight home.



The area is inhabited by the cassowary bird - a flightless creature with a huge growth on its head that doesn't look healthy. Apparently it helps the bird make its way through dense rainforest. We did come across a young one as we drove and Heidi was quick enough to get a photo. The second cassowary photo was taken at a wildlife reserve in Sydney - just wanted to show what an adult looks like!


The area grows sugar cane and bananas. We saw tons of sugar cane but unfortunately the banana trees and crop were decimated by Cyclone Larry that tore through the area in March. Its aftermath was still obviously on our trip - broken trees and houses with tarps keeping the rain out were everywhere. Now we understand why bananas are $15 per kilogram at grocery stores!




We made several stops in the Atherton Tablelands including a Platypus Lookout (didn't see any), a waterfalls near Mission Beach, a curtain fig tree and Millaa Millaa falls!


We even crossed a washed out road to get to a local swimming hole named Alligator's Nest (weird name considering there are no alligators in Oz).


Our journey back to Cairns took us up and over Mt. Belleden - talk about wild S turns! We never imagined Australia being so mountainous.