My sister Annie and I decided to take the Kennedy Highway towards the Atherton Tablelands. The Kennedy Highway is the gateway to the Savannah Highway, the bridge between Cairns (Queensland) and Broome (Western Australia). As you can expect, excitement was rolling inside me when I read this. This is a road I definitely must take with more planning and time. See the map of our journey from Kewarra Beach to Mareeba.
As we drove along the Kennedy Highway we saw the sign to the village of Kuranda. Unfortunately I had decided to bypass the village so we can explore further into the Tablelands. I was a little disappointed that we missed Kuranda - the village set amongst the rainforest. We have heard from our reception staff (and information centre) that it is the place to do some shopping. I am unsure if they meant souvenir shopping or fashion shopping. Karunda is also the start, or finish, of the Skyway Rainforest Cableway that must sister and I wanted to experience. That is for another adventure, I suppose.
The start of the Kennedy Highway is a long and winding road as you climbed through the rainforest, past Kuranda village. Eventually, the rainforest gives way to flat, farmed lands. It eventually levels out to a more comfortable driving.
At the end of Kennedy Highway is Mareeba. Mareeba is located about an hours drive from Cairns. Part of the Atherton Tablelands, it is rich in agriculture and cattle. It is also very hot!
We headed in to the Information Centre to ask about the area and where we should visit. We wanted refuge from the heat. We almost missed it as I was distracted by the watermelons near the entrance. Although I had a rough idea of what we wanted to visit, I always enjoy dropping for some local perspective.
From here we headed towards The Coffee Works and Golden Drop Winery. But not before buying some watermelons - five watermelons for the bargain price of $8. On the way back, we visited Jaques Coffee Plantation.
Mareeba Information Centre
There is a museum inside the Mareeba Information Centre. There is a gold coin donation on the way out. While I obtained information, my sister took a tour around the museum taking photos.
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| Mareeba Information Centre - note the yellow "I". |
Golden Drop Winery
It was hard to go past a winery that had the promise of the taste of mangoes. Sure enough, we were not disappointed. As we drove into the plantation, mango trees lined up the driveway inviting us in. We followed the sign towards the Golden Drop Winery cellar door.
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| Mango trees at the Golden Drop plantation |
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| Trees lined both sides of the driveway - towards the distilerry |
Coffee at Jaques
On our way back to Cairns, we stopped by Jaques Coffee Plantation. The plantation was eight kilometres away from the main road. We were met by plantations after plantations then finally termite mounds lined the side of the road that lead to the plantation. We took the tour of the plantation - a promise of a ride on the Bean Machine, then coffee at the end.
Jaques Coffee plantation is rich in history. The family, coming from Africa, located land to start farming what they knew best - coffee. The Atherton Tableland was similar in temperature and environment to their homeland. Perfect for growing coffee - Arabica beans. The family went through a number of difficulties including government regulations and bankruptcy. Today, the plantation thrives - pesticide free.
To my amusement, the road that let into the plantation was also an air strip. We had to give way to planes. There were a couple we saw taking off.
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| Give way to the planes |
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| Bean Mobile Safari |
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| Coffee bean trees |
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| Termite mounds littered all over the Tablelands |
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| A pin for every visitor who took the tour... |
I am including the The Atherton Tablelands here as the website reminds me of the brochure we obtained from the Information Centre. We can only assume that this is their web site and so is a source of very useful information to start.
Next is the Southern Atherton Tablelands.
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