May 13, Millaa Millaa to Mt Molloy

It was still very foggy this morning so we waited until the sun started to burn it off a bit. We started out with a waterfall tour; Millaa Millaa Falla, Zillie Falls, Ellinjaa Falls, and Malanda Falls. The first 3 were on a circuit road that went up wide open hills. The waterfalls were in pockets of rainforest and were close to a car park.

We stopped at a visitors center in Malanda and the info lady convinced us to change our route. We drove to Yungaburra and walked around the town and into the hotel. There was a platypus viewing platform near the river so we drove there and there was a platypus in the water near the edge! He dove down into the water and up several times. Very cool to see one in a stream.

Then we drove out to the Curtain Fig Tree. It was a huge strangler fig that had started life sprouting high in another tree. It sent roots down and eventually the other tree died and fell over and the fig kept sending down roots and creating a massive curtain of roots. We were told that there were tree kangaroos around there, but we didn't see any.

Our next stop was Mt Hypipamee NP. There was a volcano crater, not a round crater, but sort of oval. The lava came up at an angle and blew out the crater, so it was high on one side and the viewing platform lower on the other side. From there we walked down to Dinner Falls. The trail followed a long series of cascades to a falls near the crater.

In Atherton we stopped to ask about tours of coffee plantations. The lady told us about one that wasn't in the advertisements. It was Northern Queensland Gold Coffee. We drove out to it and it was a very small operation. Bruno, the owner, gave us the tour himself. Bruno must have been in his 80's, but he knew his coffee. He said it took 9 years to get a tree to produce beans and then it has to be topped periodically, but will produce up to 60 years. He showed us a tree and the different stages of ripening. He explained that the perfect time to pick them would be when the berries were red, but that the machines they use now shake the trees and red and green berries fall. Then the berries are sent through a masher that forces the beans out of the berries. Beans won't come out of green berries. Next the beans have to be dried. They spread them on long sheets of plastic and it takes 7 or 8 days to dry, but every day or so, they shuffle through the beans to turn them over.

The green beans can be stored in bags up to 2 years. Those are the beans that are shipped worldwide. But he roasts all of his beans, doing a batch every 2 weeks or so. The beans are taken to the roasting house. He had an ancient huller he bought from Germany that removed the hulls and little pieces and sorted the beans by size. Next the beans went into an equally ancient Italian roaster at 250 degrees Celsius - 15 minutes for medium roast and less than a minute more for dark. Then he sells them, mostly mail order.

Bruno started growing coffee in 1980, a pioneer. At that time Australians drank tea and he wasn't sure whether he could sell his product, but it looked like he had done okay.

Samson is getting a cold and not feeling well, so we stopped early in a rest area.

Pictures - Samson & Jeanne at Millaa Millaa Falls, Platypus, Tree Kangaroo sign, Curtain Fig, Curtain Fig, Looking toward the coast over volcanoes and mountains, Poinsettia tree, Bruno with coffee tree, Bruno with coffee roaster