Mareeba Market, Kuranda, Cairns and Cornish Pasties
Mareeba Market
On Thursday I fitted my camera mount and Beeline to the Honda and hoped to check them both out before we headed to the market in Mareeba on Saturday. I was after some good footage and a record of the route to share later.
On Friday I checked the camera and Beeline out when I went to fuel the Honda up, and both appeared to be working well. However I didn’t check available free space on the camera memory card, and ran out on the way to Mareeba. I was also unable to download the footage I did have as I needed a gizmo to plug into my laptop to plug the memory card into. I bought one last time I was in Australia, and it’s currently one of a pair sat about ten thousand miles away from where I am now!
Friday afternoon Kerry and I went into Port Douglas in the car and I bought what I needed to make Cornish pasties and clotted cream on Sunday, as well as some scones (rhymes with stones!) to complete the set. In the event I made the clotted cream after we got back.
In the evening we ate at the Tin Shed, where I had great fish and chips for the cost of a takeaway version at home. That was followed by darts and a couple of drinks at a bar in town, but we weren’t late due to the early start in the morning. When we got home the clotted cream had cooled and set so we quality checked it before turning in.
Saturday we set off shortly after 8am, meeting Andrew and Robyn at the Shell station and 3 bikes headed off via the Julatten Range. Along the way we kept changing positions so Conor could get video of us all along the way. I’ll share it later.
There were some great long, straight roads through the bush which were ideal for overtaking the few other vehicles we encountered on the way. At anything over 80kph passing on the Honda was effortless. Just open the throttle. No need to drop a gear, although it was much more fun when I did! Warp factor one Mr Spock!
The ride was about 85km (50 miles) and took a little over an hour. The destination, Mareeba, is a small town on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland, historically known as a major tobacco capital of Australia from the 1920s through the 1950s, as well as an early gold rush and tin-mining supply town originally called Granite Creek. Today, it’s known as Australia's coffee capital (producing roughly 70% of the nation's coffee), a gateway to the Atherton Tablelands and Cape York, and home to the annual Mareeba Rodeo.
We went for the Market, held on the 2nd and 5th Saturdays of every month it has up to 180 stalls showcasing locally grown produce, quality handmade products, food, drinks, and much more. Interesting to look round and potentially a good place to source some presents to take back. As it was we didn’t buy much there, but Kerry, Conor and I came back on a different route, stopping at Kuranda, a small village in the rainforest where I bought a present for home, and Cairns where we stopped at Dan Murphy’s to stock up on supplies, and Hemingways just to keep hydrated.
In the afternoon we went to the park on the sea front in Port Douglas to a gathering for some friends of Kerry and Conor who were leaving, and then on to Andrew and Robyn’s for a barbeque.
Sunday morning we went to the local Sunday market where I managed to get a couple more presents, then fitted Conor’s new front indicators to his Bonneville. In order to test them thoroughly we took a ride back into town and called in at Hemingways, where the Portoberfest (think Oktoberfest) is being held next weekend.
Earlier in the day we’d prepped everything for tea so when we got back we used it to build 6 cornish pasties (plus a small one for Conor’s lunch at work). They came out exactly as hoped, and accompanied by scones with clotted cream and jam, with a glass of Dartmoor whisky to follow, made a proper janner tea to round off a great few days.
Pictures are in no particular order.
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