We disembarked in Cairns and headed towards the Atherton Tablelands. It was so much cooler than way up north or even out on the water. John said it seemed weird to be driving so fast after all the slow rough tracks we’ve been on lately.

This area is well-known for its mountain bike riding trails, so the boys found one in Davies Creek National Park on the way to a lovely bush camping site with no one in coo-ee of us.

Upper Davies Creek National Park

We stopped in Mareeba where they are growing coffee these days. We even found time for stopping to actually drink a coffee. I liked that. Mareeba also has an amazing Heritage Museum at the Visitor Information Centre. We couldn’t believe the sheer volume of things to see there. They had extensive displays on the pioneering days, mining of gold, the now defunct tobacco industry and its history, pastoralist history, beef industry and a huge number of historical displays of times gone by. It was exhausting. We only stopped in there to get a map, but left an hour later.

Then in Atherton, we found the trail head for another extensive network of mountain bike trails. There’s a Pump Track (that’s a small set of tracks with numerous mounds and raised tracks for zooming over). It was here that Harry fell off a raised track and ate dirt. How he didn’t lose his front teeth, or break his nose is a mystery. He ahs ended up with just a few grazes and a bit less chin than he used to own.

We also visited Herberton. It’s touted as a town where every building is heritage listed. What it actually is, is a private museum of an enormous collection of historical buildings and an endless collection of stuff from farming tools, children’s toys, clothing, blacksmith’s tools, printing presses, ancients cameras – the list goes on and on and on. The one place that did catch my eye was the old pharmacy.

The old days in Pharmacy

It was an amazing collection “stuff” that one couple had spent 50 years putting together. But we were completely over the whole history thing by now. Ferg and John went for a good hard MTB ride for a couple of hours and Harry (injured after the crash earlier today) pushed the trolley in the supermarket. It was odd, because my supermarket buddy is always Ferg, while Harry usually does fuel, gets ice and cleans the car windows with John. But I’ll take anyone who’ll help me when it’s shopping time.