The day started with a visit to Hastie’s Swamp – a small national park wetland minutes from Atherton with thousands of birds and a two story bird hide.

A local twitcher brandishing a new 100-400mm lens told me here were about 5000 magpie geese at the swamp.

There were just as many whistling ducks.

Mount Hypipamee (The Crater) was only a half hour drive through a mix of dairy farms, crops and rainforest pockets. Near Ravenshoe, 930 metres above sea level, a wind farm lined a high ridge on the edge of the tableland.

The vegetation changed abruptly after Ravenshoe. The Millstream Falls is the widest single-drop waterfall in Australia.

Not far rom the waterfall, we did make friends with this local skink which was the most patient lizard I have ever encountered.

The Savannah Way passes through tropical grasslands with sections of forest like the Forty Mile Scrub National Park with its dry rainforest mix of figs, cedars and bottle trees.

Rainbow lorikeet on a Beefwood (Grevillea parallela)

The Savannah Way was lined with the ferny leaved grevillea –  Grevillea pteridifolia.

Undara Volcanic National Park is a pastoral lease with a resort complex privately run by the original graziers – the Collins family. We stayed in the refurbished railway carriages sourced from a Queensland Rail disused yard at Mareeba.

Ensuite and queen bed in the outback.

Even the dining is in converted railway carriages. The meal was exceptionally good.

The open dining room with carriages at the Undara Experience.

We finished the evening spotlighting around the resort grounds – only a brush-tailed possum was found.