Northern Queensland Coast (Mission Beach to Sarina)

Sadly the much anticipated Mission Beach market was a fizzler, due to heavy rain we had most of Sat and continued through all Sunday. We went out there but there were only a handful of stalls down from the expected hundred or so – we got soaked just in the 15 mins or so we had a look around. Chantal ticked off another of her big things around OZ with a Cassowary outside the main shopping centre. In fact she has done very well this week (see attached photos as evidence), with a big gumboot (Tully), big snake (can’t remember), big Spider (Townsville) and a big mango (Bowen). Thankfully even though we had a shiiiite load of rain it was still quite warm, a slight variation to what you guys are experiencing in Melb!

We had a very wet and dirty pack-up the next morning with sand and mud over everything. We were lucky enough to see a pair of Cassowaries just as we headed out of town. Due to the rain we then only stopped at Tully (apparently the town in OZ with the highest rainfall) to take a photo of the big gumboot; and later Ingham which has an amazing cemetery, with many ornate Italian mausoleums replacing the standard grave and headstone – no shortage of cash up here! We virtually drove right through to Townsville where we setup at the Rowes Bay caravan park, and best of all it was sunny. It was amazing how quickly everything dried out and with a brush down you wouldn’t have known everything had been filthy less than 8 hours before. The kids hit the pool within minutes of camp being setup and that was it pretty much for the day. Next day we caught up on some shopping and with a Bunnings and Annaconda in town I was more than happy – got some new tie down ropes for the trailer, the last lot were sandblasted until they were very frayed. Also got myself a new fishing rod, for Father’s Day of course. We cruised around town, ending up at the town lagoon, which is just a really big glorified pool that has filtered sea water running through it, minus the stingers and crocs to keep everyone happy. The kids gave it a spin and we got the thumbs up.

After that it was southwards again. We passed through one of the big cane growing areas, which includes Ayr, Bowen and Proserpine. Cane harvesting is in full swing, being the dry and the mills are madly harvesting and crushing to beat the first of the big rains predicted in Oct. We turned east at Proserpine and headed out to the quiet Conway Beach, which is within spitting distance of Airlie Beach which is considered the gateway to the Whitsundays. The kids loved Conway as it had a great pool with an even cooler water slide and two jumping pillows. It also had some very colourfully painted toilet blocks, in fact anything that could be painted in the park was a very bright colour. Next morning and we headed into Airlie Beach, spending the day wandering around town, including a swim at the lagoon and fisn’n’chips on the grass there. Of course with all the shops there we couldn’t help but leave with a few bags of goodies! The local toilets also were interesting, with some interesting pics carefully positioned in the mens (see photo). We later drove down to Shute Harbour which is where all the big boats come in and out for the Whitsunday Islands. Good Samartian deed for the day was helping an old couple retrieve the keys they had locked in their car.

We left Conway Beach relatively dry even after a decent amount of rain overnight. We passed through Mackay before stopped at Sarina for an early lunch. We had a tour through the Sugar Cane Shed, which is a miniature mill and info centre setup to show you how cane is grown, harvested and process. It was very informative and two hours went very quickly, the kids particularly enjoying the fairy floss at the end whilst Louise didn’t mind their alcoholic beverages. We didn’t get much further down the road and we setup camp at Carmilla Beach, with Charles and his big ears no where to be seen. It’s a free camp and we got a great spot right on the beach overlooking the water (when it’s there) – there is a huge tide and as it’s near a full moon I reckon the tide goes out over a km and probably around 3-4m in height. Again no swimming here due to Mr & Mrs Croc, shame as it’s so nice. Later that night we chucked our lines in but had no luck, so the new rod is still to prove itself.

We awoke today to beautiful weather, a stark contrast I hear to what hit VIC over the last 48 hours or so. As it is Fathers Day, rather than wake up naturally, our two darling children come storming onto our bed at 6.15am !@#$%^& It’s been a great Fathers Day, after a lazy breakfast we spent a couple of hours fishing, again with no luck though Lachlan scored a Grunter off a guy a couple of camps up. Just got to teach the boy to clean the slippery buggers, a task that was left to me – and it’s Father’s Day to boot, should be all feet up and a continuous stream of beers! Once the tide went out far enough we went for a long walk up the beach with the kids again collecting a heap of beach treasures, most of which will be forgotten once they end up in the car and they are stepped on time after time as they get in and out of the car! This arvo we have to head to the local servo to get some prawns as bait as Lachlan reckons that will solve his problem of not being able to catch any fish. Tomorrow we’ll head south to Rosslyn Bay, hoping to catch up with Simon Osinski (one of Lachlan’s classmates) who is sailing with his parents for 5 months along the east coast of OZ – lucky boy.