Lodging - Kookaburra Lodge
This worked out beautifully for us. It's very reasonably priced, especially when you are birding and mainly sleeping and showering there. You had two choices for breakfast, eggs and bacon or scrambled herbed eggs. The fried eggs and bacon were good, and the herbed scrambled eggs were really good. It was served on the table outside your room.
The rooms are small, but just fine for what we needed. The gardens are beautiful, and filled with butterflies. It was also convenient to just walk into the village, which I did on the Wednesday. The hosts were especially nice, and we would definitely stay there again.
Dining
Nick's
Everyone seems to know about Nick's, and when we realized we had missed the grocery story by 9 minutes (closed at 7) we decided to try it out. Steve had a wood-fired pizza and I had spaghetti, and we shared a salad. We were both pretty full! Two nights later we returned for pizza as they had carryout and we were both sort of tired and wanted to stay in. The spaghetti was okay, but the pizzas were really good, we would recommend.
Lake Eacham Hotel
I ate lunch there on my stay-home day, and had bangers and mash. It was okay. The serving was huge, and I couldn't eat it all. I could see that many of the other servings around me were also gigantic. Roasted pumpkin made its appearance on the plate and was really good.
Then, Steve and I ate there that night as well. I had their garlic prawns and rice, and it was delicious. Steve had a burger and fries that he also thought was good.
After talking to the bartender for awhile, Steve tried the Bundaberg Sarsparilla and I tried their Ginger Beer. Really refreshing.
We poked around the dining room as we waited for the meal. Did I already describe the building? Creaking wooden floors, huge rooms that go on and on, big sliding doors between the rooms with wood on the bottom and stained glass at the top, pub on one side with a room with pool tables and poker tables, and tables outside in front so you can watch the world go by.
On to Julatten
After we left Lake Eacham on Friday we made our way to Julatten via Atherton and Mareeba. As always, we just enjoy looking around the countryside as we go. We had driven this way with Alan the day before when we went to Granite Gorge, and soon passed that turn off.
I stopped at a roadside stand and bought sugar bananas, mango, and passion fruit. I really thought I was stopping at a watermelon stand, but it turns out that sign was for a stand across the highway. But then I felt committed to buy something because the old guy was so sweet. He cut open a passion fruit so I could try it, then picked out four for me.
Then I bought a mango because I figured it was time I tried them again. He took his time finding just the right mango for me. Turns out, I still don't like them.
Then I bought sugar bananas, because hey, I like bananas, and it has sugar in the name, so what's not to like? Apparently a lot.
The passion fruit is a hit though! I am eating some now.
Mareeba was the last big town before Julatten, so I dropped Steve at the Rotary Park there to bird, and I went back to fill up the gas tank and go grocery shopping. I bought some watermelon here since I missed out on the stand earlier.
We hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I made a third detour, driving through a Red Rooster and getting some chicken sandwiches and coke for the two of us. Back to the park where I waved him down and we picnicked there before moving on.
Unfortunately it sounds like the fruit bats have really changed the habitat at the park, and the birding wasn't great. We also stopped at Abbatoir Swamp (inviting name, right?) but the boardwalk is really in disrepair, and there wasn't much going on. On to Kingfisher Lodge whre Steve went birding and I got dinner ready.
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