And we’re back exploring the tablelands region of tropical Queensland!
Day 2 (continued)
The rest of my day had me chasing all the sights across northern Queensland, visiting Millaa Millaa lookout, getting ice cream, doing the Ma:Mu canopy walk, seeing a cassowary(!!), driving through the banana farms to the coast of Mission Beach, and getting to visit the town’s Cassowary monument.
Millaa Millaa lookout was one of my trip highlights. It was a fluke finding, with a little sign saying “lookout” taking me off the highway and up to a viewing spot where I could see for miles across the tablelands. When I stopped at a dairy for ice cream, they were all lactose free! It struck me as peculiar but not wildly outlandish. I’d never had lactose free ice cream before. My findings: it’s a touch sweeter, must be due to the free galactose floating around.
The Ma:Mu tropical skywalk wasn’t that different compared to the other plant life I had seen, aside from the fact that it was labelled! Oddly, no eucalypts in this part of the country. But no shortage of plant life, and monsteras grow wild here! From the viewing platform, all I could think was that the trees looked an awful lot like Kale.
While walking back, a massive, dinosaur-like feathered creature meandered onto the walking path: a cassowary!! He had no qualms about being watched, and rather enjoyed scratching for snacks on the gravelled path. His feet and legs were so thick, almost comically large, to support his massive body. I would not want to get on his bad side!
The colouring on the cassowary neck is almost iridescent, and mesmerizing when you watch it saunter through the speckled light of the forest. The lump on its head is highly vascularized, helping it thermoregulate. The cassowary was in no hurry to be anywhere, so I ended up taking a bypass of the trail to carry on with my day.
While driving to Mission Beach, I watched the landscape gradually flatten and become more densely populated with cane and banana farms. The banana trees had foil bags covering the fruit, to keep little pests from snacking too much. About 60% of the sugar cane fields I passed were flowering, with a 50 cm bloom towering over the rest of the plant. Other than the farms (love), the drive wasn’t too eventful, despite the signs telling me to watch for cassowaries.
In Mission Beach, I found the Giant Cassowary, then went for a walk along the water before I lost daylight. I ended up driving back to Cairns in the dark. The lights on my rental weren’t ideal, but at least they don’t have moose in this country! I stopped before I got too close to the city to stare up at the sky, cause ya girl is a sucker for the stars.
Back at the hostel, I had some new roommates: a Spanish woman and a freshly-landed Austrian guy. They were both friendly, and we had a good little visit. Soon my tummy was telling me to eat soon or suffer The Consequences (has anyone else read Remarkably Bright Creatures?). So a frozen Woolies macaroni and cheese it was. Not as good as Aldi, but it was something.
See you soon,
Kate