Tuesday 11 August 2015

Chapter 3 - Forrest Beach to Cairns

 Day 15 – Monday 3 August 2015

We broke camp and moved away from Ingham and the great Tyto Wetlands.  Our first stop was Lucinda to check out the longest service jetty in the Southern Hemisphere – at 5.76 km.  The jetty takes sugar from trains and loads it on to sugar tankers.  It has 660 concrete and steel pylons.  The (bad) photo below gives you an idea of the jetty. It is actually long enough to follow the curvature of the earth.


Lucinda Sugar Loading Jetty

Needless to say we were now in the middle of sugar cane.  It became very obvious when we had to stop for a train crossing the road, and slow down to watch the harvesting of the cane.


Sugar Cane Train


Sugar Cane Harvesting

We then visited Taylors Beach and then moved onto our location for two nights – The Forrest Beach Hotel Caravan Park.  After setting up camp and our first shower for three days we had lunch and went for a walk on the nearby beach.  It was worth it.

Forrest Beach

Day 16 – Tuesday 4 August 2015

It was 6:45 am as I took the following photo on Forrest Beach.  It was a lovely morning, with the beach being occupied by one fisherman and myself.  It is my first “sunrise over water” photo of the trip.


Sunrise on Forrest Beach

 


Forrest Beach Kookaburra

Not only do all off my travel blogs have (at least) one sunrise photo, but they also feature a kookaburra.  Just after breakfast a local (light coloured) kookaburra landed in the tree beside us, and was happy to pose. It was a quiet day spent enjoying the magnificent weather, probably in the low to mid 20’s.  A bit of washing and car-tidying was also in order.  We also went for short drive to check out the local sights.  However we soon realised that our caravan was situated in the “best sight” – so back we went.

Late in the day we got dressed up (read, “put on shoes”) and headed over for our “buy one, get one free” offer.  We sat at a table on the lawn outside and admired the view. 


Day 17 – Wednesday 5 August 2015

We left Forrest Beach behind us and headed north.  Our first stop was Cardwell, for fuel and food and coffee.  We were joined by great friends, Kay & Darryl, before we pressed on to the Mission Beach Hideway Holiday Village.  We established camp and were soon walking along the beach.

This was followed by scones, cream & jam and soon after by a cold beer.  Shirley then found a line dancing mate (from home), only three caravans from us.  Small world.

Creature on our Doorstep

Home cooked spaghetti bolognaise with damper and magnificent Campbells red wine (Durif 2007) was the order of the day.  The little guy in the adjacent photo (about 9 cm long) visited us for a while (maybe attracted by the ‘red’).


Day 18 – Thursday 6 August 2015

We had a quiet day.  Darryl cooked a magnificent breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomatoes, hash browns, toast and coffee.  We did not need any lunch.

A short drive along the coast, some Sudoku, a beach walk and not much else was the order of the day. 


Day 19 – Friday 7 August 2015

Darryl and I hit the beach at 6:35 am to get the following two views of Mission Beach.  It was a pleasant 4.5 km walk.

Sunrise on Mission Beach

 

Mission Beach Just After Sunrise

Our main activity for the day was a drive to Mission Beach south, because we could. I was amused by the wording on the “Bakery” sign.



Day 20 – Saturday 8 August 2015

We were up bright and early and on the road at 8:30, again heading north, destined for “The Boulders” – an apparent good place to stay for the night. Information around the traps was that march and sand flies were bad there so we changed our destination to Brampton Beach.

It was a short drive, delayed somewhat by a coffee and a gas bottle replacement in Innisfail. The gas bottle was provided by Bunnings, so we supported the local fundraiser and bought a sausage in bread. The “Coffee Shop” coffee was excellent.

We found a cheap site (read “unpowered”) at Bramston Beach and set up camp in and around some lovely trees. The photo below shows Shirley and Darryl enjoying some well earned relaxation.


Shirley and Darryl with no cares in the World

We went for a 4 km walk along the beach and then settled in for a quiet afternoon. We went for a walk to the sole shop in town, for an ice-cream, only to find that it was closed for the week.

Kay provided beef stew for dinner.


Day 21 – Sunday 9 August 2015

Still trying for perfection – not that it can be achieved –  had me up at 6:30 am to get another sunrise photo.

Bramston Beach Sunrise

The Babinda Boulders

My apologies to those readers who are already sick of sunrise photos. However if you are the sort of person who can get out of bed early (and I am), and you are on holidays (that as well for me) and you like a walk on the beach (3 out of 3) then sunrises are OK – maybe better than OK.

Anyway we moved further north and stopped for a break at “The Boulders”, near a lovely little town called Babinda.

We continued into Cairns and set up camp at the Crystal Cascades Holiday Park. 

We had been on the road for 20 days and covered 3696 km – about 184 per day. It was good to get to the greenery and lush nature of the tropical coast.  In Hughenden (over a week ago) it is so dry that they have closed two lanes of the local swimming pool.  Further east some of the dairy cows are producing evaporated milk.

After lunch the four musketeers drove to Cairns airport and picked up our great friend, Fay. I am not sure we can be called the “Famous Five”, but we are five people who get along together pretty well – whether home or away. We will be together for the next 21 days – for 10 days we will be in a group of about 18 for the Cape York trip (some of whom are staying in the same caravan park as us).

Happy hour drifted into dinner, which drifted into coffee, chocolates and chats.  It was pretty good.

 

Day 22 – Monday 10 August 2015

I started the day with an invigorating 5 km walk along a creek and through some rain-forest, all the time dodging kamikaze kids riding bikes to school.  

The rest of the day was pretty casual with some shopping, some relaxing, another walk and happy hour. The latter walk including seeing a 1.5 metre snake having a casual swim in the creek.

 

Day 23 – Tuesday 11 August 2015

I started the day with another invigorating walk, this time 6 km and in a different direction to yesterday, still dodging kamikaze kids riding bikes to school.  It was rather dangerous as I had head phones and an iPod operating.

We then drove and went for a walk to Crystal Cascades – a lovely walk along a creek that supplies Cairns water. A few butterflies were good enough to let me get a rough photo.  It was a lovely stroll.







Crystal Cascades

We then found an Italian restaurant for lunch and all shared pizzas, before buying 2 kg of prawns for dinner on the way home.  

Kay then produced the clippers and gave Darryl and I our regular No 2 haircut – ready for Cape York.

The following photo shows some of the dinner ceremony – of tiger prawns, salad, seafood sauce, lemon and wine.


Darryl & Shirley Enjoying the Tiger Prawns


Day 24 – Wednesday 12 August 2015

Darryl cooking breakfast

The day started in fine fashion with a group breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomatoes and toast – cooked superbly by Darryl in the camp kitchen. It was another lovely day in Paradise, with a bite already in the sun at 9am.Next door to the camp kitchen was a nomad where the husband and wife team made coffee and cut hair.  I spent $4 on an excellent cup of coffee, while the others had a cup of tea.

After a few chores and morning tea, Fay and I decided that it was time for a swim. The pool was lovely but the water temperature was brisk. So I did my 10 lengths and got out soon after.


Fay & Chris in Crystal Cascades Pool

It was a quiet afternoon – reading, Sudoku, chatting.

About 4pm we drove into the Cairns waterfront, parked the car and went for a walk.  After some time we stopped for a drink at the Cairns RSL and then dined on various local culinary delights.

Home early (7:45) to finish packing and have an early night. 

 

This posting is complete.

Last Updated at 8 pm Wednesday 12 August 2015


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