We went into Malanda today, one of the little close towns, these towns are so nice, there is so much history in the area there is always something to see.
First we went to a local dairy farm which made their own cheeses and chocolates.
There was an observation room that you could watch the cheese being worked, but also a great video set up that showed all the stages of cheese making, as well as the growing and cropping extra food.
They had great product, we bought a ginger yoghurt and a very nice camembert, yum yum, it is nice to support local industry.
Right in town there was another dairy that normally does tours, we were going to do this but when we got there we found out they only do them Monday to Friday.
They did have a fascinating museum there that was all about the dairy industry in the tablelands, the different articles from the past, particularly the war time and the negative influence the Americas had when they were based up here.
There was a lot on when cyclone Larry went through, photos of the destruction, they also describe things that most people wouldn't think of, like no power to milk 300 cows, dairies blown down, one farmer had to chainsaw all day to get to his dairy, he got there at 2pm and found the cows in a lot of distress waiting to be milked, he was on of the lucky ones, he had a generator he could hook up for the milking.
We tend to forget the impact of natural disasters on animals.
It was lunch time so we wandered through town, dropped into the local pub, they didn't seem to have what we wanted, they did have a lot of interesting old pictures, one of Prince Charles when he was going to school in Australia, he visited up in the area for a special function.
We found a fish and chip shop, so that was lunch in the park.
The locals have a swimming area at the base of a small waterfall, it is right on the edge of town, it is a very pretty area but we wasn't tempted to swim, still very cold.
On either side of the road near the falls are walking trails through the rainforest, we did those walks hoping to see another tree kangeroo, but mostly enjoying the forest, we can never seem to get over the size of the trees.
We did see a different bird, one I had not come across before, it is called the cat bird because it's call just sounds like a cat, it is quite pretty though.
Some of the birds up here make strange sounds, there are a lot of curlews that run around at night and their call is high pitched and sounds like someone is being strangled, they have long legs and funny eyes, very different.
Picked up some more refreshments, port for the cold weather, beer for the hot.
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