Lake Barrine is a picture perfect crater lake of crystal clear water hemmed in by dense rainforest. There is a quaint old tea house that serves Devonshire tea overlooking the water. Immaculate gardens flow down the hill to the water’s edge and overflow with Ulysses and Cairns Bird-wing butterflies in the wet season when the Calliandra and Claradendron are in flower. We hunt through bunches of Bromiliads looking for frogs. We walk the 5km lake circuit to see birds, and a couple of times we have taken the boat tour around the lake to view the snapping turtles, eels, water dragons, pythons and more birds.
My second favourite place is the Skybury coffee plantation west of Mareeba. From the huge café there is a spectacular view east across the tablelands. The coffee is good, and there are always lots of birds to watch, if not a wallaby or two. I could sit and look for hours here. Contemplate life. Watch storm clouds roll in, or out. I've often thought I would love a house right on this spot. In April we watched a great bower bird rearranging the bright pink bling decorating his substantial bower. That pink peg has to sit in just the right place. That red plastic ribbon must fall just so. It was quite a sight seeing his efforts to attract a mate.
My other favourite place is the Daintree Rainforest, about 1.5hrs north of Cairns. The Daintree is a luxury rainforest – the kind that you can’t even walk in because it is so thick with vines and prickly things you are better off not touching. Here the rainforest pours down mountains until it crashes into the sea and both are spectacular. They have carefully constructed boardwalks through the forest in places so that you can view it safely. At first I found this somewhat disappointing, as a keen bush trekker, but on considering some bush crashing I soon understood why the boardwalks are a good idea for both me and the bush.
On our last visit we even watched a cassowary having a bath, but I may have mentioned that before. I love all the tropical plants, the heat, the colours, the humidity, the feeling of it all. And of course the icecream place that uses unusual tropical fruits like sapote for a yummy icy cold treat.
Leaving behind favourite things is sad, but it opens the door to find new favourite things in a new place. It is the same with faces. Another voyage of discovery awaits us.
