Day 37 – Wednesday 25 August 2021 –80 km

Yungaburra township was our first stop today to explore the small town and look at the shops. There are some very interesting shops with quality goods, the artists are very good. We also had a good look at the gem shop, also very good. There are flowerpots hanging from baskets around the town & an old wagon full of flowers, it is all very neat & tidy.

At the end of the street is Peterson Creek & there is a platypus walk along the creek & a viewing hide. The creek bank has been revegetated over the years and there is a 15 minute walk (QLD time, the time we know is a lot longer than theirs) to a small suspension bridge that we take. There are small birds everywhere and we spot some elusive platypus. The walk is very quiet and beautiful, you forget you are next to a town & near a busy road.

On our drive to Herberton we spot a fire on top of a small volcanic hill sending plumes of smoke into the sky.  The Herberton Historic Village is an amazing place, we spend around four hours exploring the 16 acres of buildings & relics & that is not enough, we missed some of the displays. There are over 60 buildings (we really tried hard to see most of them), many have been moved from old towns or rural properties & relocated here. Even an old sawmill has been relocated to here. The display of fully restored & running John Deere tractors is amazing, the sound is unbelievably loud. The displays of relics & items in common use from the 1800s & early 1900s is amazingly comprehensive, there are lots of items I can remember from my grandparent’s farms and houses. Also very many items I have never seen before. Some items I can only guess at what they may have been used for. It truly is an extraordinary place to visit & we wished we had more time.  We had to leave because we had to get to our appointment with our KKOG group for supper. This village is all museum, the only place that is used for eating/drinking is the old Bakerville pub (relocated to here) and set up as a museum showpiece where we enjoyed a vegetarian lunch.  There are not many people visiting this museum at all, we can only imagine how busy it must have been pre-covid as it is such an extraordinary place.

On the drive to Lake Barrine we drive past two small fires, both cleaning up rubbish in farm paddocks. Lake Barrine is a perched crater lake on the road to Cairns from Yungaburra & the Tea House on the shore was our destination this afternoon for supper with the KKOG crowd. We sat on the deck & sipped on home-made Kombucha that was very tasty and chatted to others in the group. The finger food was also tasty along with the local cheese selection. The very proud owner Steve Curry told us the story with lots of photographs about how this establishment has survived 4 generations (he has some children who are keen to keep this wonderful place going). We watched the sun set over the lake before heading back to camp. Another great day to be alive.