Happy in the Tropics

Our day started today with smiling faces. First up, an hour riding scooters at the skate park in the morning.

The big grins came five minutes out of Ravenshoe, where we had stayed overnight at the old railway station, as we climbed up the hill to be greeted by a lushly green mountainous landscape. It's nice to be in a tropical landscape again.

Max found himself a new family at the station at Ravenshoe!

We had a great day touring around the Atherton Tablelands, a region that reminded us a lot of Margaret River.

There was Windy Hill Farm where we got up close to the huge windmills generating electricity and the waterfall 'circuit'  - three beautiful waterfalls on a 15km loop that easily rivalled those in Tasmania.

A stop at the dairy and chocolate factory helped keep our tummies happy around lunchtime, as did finding the avocado capital of Australia at a roadside stall where we snapped up ten avocadoes for $4.

Next find was the crystal capital of Australia in the main street of Atherton. It was one of those places that could have been kitsch - a series of fake caves created by one man to showcase his crystal collection - but was actually kind of cool. Donning hard hats was fun and Evie in particular loved the glittering colours. She purchased her very own amethyst necklace which she has worn proudly all afternoon.


















And here's the view from our campsite tonight:

That's right, we're at a drive in at Mareeba where we get to watch two movies and then have a sleep over. None of us have ever been to a drive-in movie before, so a brand new experience!

And Mareeba just happens to be home to numerous coffee plantations so I predict some delicious tasting tomorrow. For me anyway :)