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| Skybury Coffee |
Last year we stopped at Coffee Works in Mareeba, this time we are off west 10km or so to Skybury - Australian Coffee Centre (self styled...) on the Chillagoe Road.
Great building post an beam with tree trunk posts and surrounded by the plantation. Skipped the tour as is was constant drizzle with occasional showers.
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| Awaiting lunch... and the oncoming shower... |
In fact we saw the sun from 1125 to 1135 and that was it. Either this is one of Mareeba's 65 NON sunny days for the year, or the 10 minutes counts as a 'sunny day'... Nonetheless had a good lunch and an excellent cup of house roast coffee. Bought a couple of small coffee samplers to go...
We pass the Mareeba Showgrounds. The rodeo is on in a few day and there are already about 100 vans, motorhomes and horse house parked up next door...
Next it's north of Mareeba to the Mango winery - Golden Drop. Suffice to say we head home with several bottles of Mango Cello (liqueur) and some citrus Cellos too...
South of Mareeba is one stop I have been waiting for since passing the signs several times last year; Mount Uncle Distillery!
Damn; their whisky will not be ready til next year. However the patron of the place Bruce Watkin happened to be on tasting duty. We had a good chat. Rum is his 'tipple' so we tried the Platinum white rum, the dark rum - which he conceded would be better in another year or so, but it was still a superb drop. Had to try the Banana Liqueur - pretty good. We skipped the 'bridges' eatery, and left with 'only' a bottle of the white rum - Platinum.Boy is it time to head for home now... and carefully.
We have been on the tablelands for a week now and aside from last Tuesday and most of Wednesday being fine it has rained or drizzled nearly all the time. We have been tempted to head for dry ground - but at the moment there isn'y any for hundreds of km. At least it is not cold! Cool at night here, but have filed half the warm bedding away finally.
We are only 20km from QLDs two highest mountains - Bartle Frere (1622m or 5322ft) and Bellenden Ker ( of which I have been waiting to see and photograph their tops...) so I guess the Misty Mountains includes here... and it is forecast to hang about for a few more days -while the high pressure system sits over the Tasman Sea...
The tea harvester is audible in the distance a lot of the time. While the tea growth is slow in the winter!!! they only mow/cut/pick about every 4 weeks. I am waiting to get a decent pic of the machine. It is about 6m wide and seems to float over the sea of camellia bushes (the tea)... cheers from the Atherton Tablelands!
