Tinaroo Lake 2 6 05

Drove into Mareeba, a prosperous town of about 8,500. It is the centre of a varied agricultural area, growing tobacco, mangoes. Then onto Atherton - an interesting town of about 5,000 people that has lots of interesting art-deco buildings, as well as traditional ‘Queenslanders’. This area is a lot colder and wetter than Mareeba, however the locals seem to enjoy this, in contrast to the heat of the coast, They tell us that it even gets down to zero in winter! Looked for a platypus in the creek, but no luck! After traversing a rocky track, we camped at Lake Tinaroo that is the major water supply for the area. This is a stupendous lake that was blowing a gale, however we were able to stop at a great spot with 250 degree views. 3 kms dirt corrugations to get in but surprisingly it was fully graded on our side only in the morning and no bumps!