Mareeba and Chillagoe

A highlight of our stay in Mareeba was a day trip 2 hours inland to Chillagoe. The striking black rock formations were fascinating to walk around, and we also went on a tour of an enormous cave system, with microbats flitting about our heads.

Balancing rock

Tree root deep in cave 

Back in Mareeba, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Jaques Coffee Plantation, and went on a guided tour with Jason Jaques, who was happy to pose for a photo with his coffee beans.

Coffee is a major theme in Mareeba, and we also visited Coffeeworks, which is a museum of all things coffee and tea related, with a fabulous tasting room, with tea, coffee, chocolates and coffee/chocolate liquer available for as much tasting as you can manage! Ben certainly enjoyed the chocolates, while Garry actually confessed to having had so much coffee he had the coffee jitters (unheard of!).  I had a bit of everything, and really liked the historical teapots. 

The Mareeba Wetlands were also lovely, and quite astonishing to learn they are man made, with nothing planted. They are covered in waterlillies and attract a great deal of birdlife - we saw green pygmy geese, which were great to see.