A Perfect Day

 

What a gorgeous day!! Clear skies, warmth, fabulous. And to think its mid winter. I'm sure the wet season would be testing.

Mission Beach reminded me a bit of Phuket. Maybe it's because we had dinner last night in a Thai restaurant ... Not on the beach though. The caravan park was called Dunk Island View, for obvious reasons.

I learnt that Cyclone Larry swept over the island causing damage and it had only just been rebuilt and sold when Cyclone Yasi (2011), a massive category 5 system, hit land at Mission Bay causing mass destruction. The resort on the island was also badly damaged and is yet to be rebuilt.  Pity the owner who had just bought it! Maybe that's another reason for the Phuket thoughts. At Justin and Helena's wedding we stayed at Nai Yang beach which was hit by a tsunami and there was a multi-story hotel wreck at the end of the beach ( wrecked for various reasons, not just the tsunami ).

Mission Beach area has a long beach and 14 kilometres of Palm fringed coast line. We attempted the "Russian pose shot ......remember that bird at Similian Islands, in Thailand !!" Greg used coconuts as his prop and I hugged a palm tree.

There are 20 tropical islands off shore, the closest is Dunk. It is also has a world heritage rainforest which is home to the endangered cassowary, Ulysses butterfly and the green tree frog. We got one "spotto" - the butterfly, and one "almost" sighting. Well the cassowary had been on the track that day and left a calling card.

Went for a brief walk in the dense rainforest but the mosquitoes drove us out. Drove along all the beaches, stopping to check things out then back into the traffic and the Bruce Highway at El Arish. This was a soldiers settlers town after WW1 ...blocks given out to grow sugar cane ... And the street names reflect war history. There was a quaint pub there.

We then deviated on the "canecutters way" a meandering road through cane fields, banana farms, paw paw plantations, rolling hills, through six little villages and over great little creeks. We stopped at Liverpool Creek for lunch. At Silkwood (what a great name) saw a tiny NAB bank and read later it is the smallest in Australia. It was a tiny white wooden building, not much bigger than a toilet. Silkwood is also the place that has Australia's only pepper farm but we didn't see that.

Then found Meena Creek and Paronella Park. The park was built by a Spanish immigrant in the 1930s. His vision included Spanish themed castles, a ball room powered by the only privately run hydro power station, gardens and lakeside tunnels, fountains and bridges. The waterfall there was very spectacular. But we didn't bother spending $$$$ to go into the park.... Thanks Rifter....saved us.

We are camped on the edge of a croc infested river ( maybe slight exaggeration .... there may be  some crocs in there) in Innisfail. The caravan owner said the crocs wouldn't get us... So that's good. But the kayak will stay on the roof!! There us steep bank down to the waters edge which Rifter wants to explore... But NO!