July 17 - 22 (Day 168 - 173) - Mossman

Friday 17 July

Quiet day today. Started off with a lovely coffee while watching the cane trains go past.  We then spent a few hours getting school and business work done. Then had a refreshing swim. It's such a beautiful quiet spot. We have the occasional car come past and go through the river and some come near where we are camped and turn around and go out again because they don't want to pass through the river. It's not that deep at the crossing, probably up to my knees at some points but mostly below.

The kids had great fun collecting more bamboo and turning themselves into warriors with different coloured clay.

The place we're camped at is obviously well used as a campsite by others as there were the remains of a campfire there, as well as an old trolley for which we never quite worked out its original purpose! It looked like maybe it was designed to transport four round garbage bins. Whatever it was, it had wheels, so Matt quickly adopted it and had plenty of fun taking it through the river, up and down the ramps ferrying bamboo for the fire and generally just making all sorts of games from it!

Jude also found a stag beetle papua which we found will be a full size beetle in about 2 weeks. They are huge beetles! 

Saturday 18 July

We started the day with a refreshing swim or bath which ever was needed. The water is so clear and refreshing it's beautiful to just sit and cool off. Where the cars go through it's about 50cm deep, but closer to our camp it's shalllower. However the water still flows quite quickly. It's so lovely and clear, drinkable as well, and free of algae. Honestly it's such a beautiful place!!

One of the key characteristics of this place is the cane trains. As mentioned they run fairly regularly. As we learned at the Sugar Museum in Innisfail, during peak season they are sometimes harvesting cane 24 hours a day, and based on how regularly the cane trains went past we'd believe it! They weren't regular, as far as times of day go, but typically every couple of hours one would roll by. We would often wave to them and most of the drivers would wave back and toot. They could evidently see in through the open window of the van, as during the evenings we would still wave and hear a quiet 'toot' in response! There is a sugar mill in Mossman, perhaps actually the northern-most one, so it would be common for a train full of cane cuttings to haul its way past, only to return back the other way about an hour or so later with empty carriages. There seemed to be two sets of two locomotives - Ivy and Daintree, and Douglas and Faughy. The latter set was our favourite, as the drivers always seemed that tiny bit friendlier, and it had wheels with piston-looking things attached, like a steam engine!


We needed to get a few things from in town so thought we would do them and call into the library and Greg could get some work done while we were there. We enjoyed a lovely pie from the bakery and made our way to the library when we arrived it was open but when we go to the door the lady said they were just closing up. What a disappointment - it was only midday. Of course we hadn't realised it was Saturday - when one is travelling, one rather loses track of days! It wasn't going to be open now until Tuesday as Monday is a public holiday or something, by which time we expected to be gone (although in fact we stayed nearly a week!).

We drove back to our camp spot and then I (Mim) headed back into the town to do some food shopping but first I wanted to check out the op shop. I found a few good bargains did the food shop and then headed back for a lovely quiet afternoon and evening.

Sunday 19 July 

Another beautiful day today. Plenty of sunshine to charge the batteries with the solar blanket, and water nearby to cool of and use for cooking and washing up.

We had our meeting and had a very quiet day. The kids have found the trolley very useful in moving large amounts of bamboo around and also using it in the water as a boat and many other uses.

Bek asked if we could cook dinner over the fire so we wrapped up some potatoes in foil and put them in the coals (I love potatoes done this way - the potato is so creamy on the inside and beautiful and crisp on the outside), and cooked sausages in a tray I had stored away in the cupboard for this use.
We enjoyed a lovely evening around the campfire and as always when you have a campfire cooked some marshmallows!

Monday 20 July

We had an interesting start to today. We'd noticed a car pull up across the river last night and had its bonnet up, so Greg asked if he needed a hand with anything. He said he did but it would be helpful to have some tools of which Greg had plenty. So off he trotted with our spanner set and a few screwdrivers to change over his alternator and put on a new belt. Greg ended up helping him out because he didn't seem to really know what he was doing (neither exactly did Greg but he's done some of that sort of thing before). Between the two of them they got the belt on and did some rewiring of the alternator wiring and got it all working.

We got chatting with 'Levi' and also met his girlfriend Eleanor, and he told us he sharpened knives as a bit of a job at the local Mossman markets (that happens every Saturday) and also some other markets in other towns.

They both seemed to have come from quite rough backgrounds but seemed lovely people to just chat to. The kids really enjoyed (particularly Bek) looking after his dog which was a Dingo cross, Ridgeback cross Pitbull. She was definately a beautifully natured dog and well looked after.

It was a beautiful day for washing so down to the river I went with my many buckets and pots and started the process. It takes quite a while doing it all by hand but I managed to get most it done. I'll do some more tomorrow if the weather is fine and when my back is feeling a bit better.

It was a beautiful warm day today so I got some washing done. Why not when there is plenty of fresh water hey.

The kids had split some bamboo and turned it into little boats. They then filled part of the inside of the boat with firelighters, lit them up, and sent them sailing down the stream in full blaze! Well only as far as Matt who was waiting to retrieve them, but they looked very effective at night!

Tuesday 21 July

It was a little bit over cast and raining last night and continued off and on but then was fine later in the day enough to get some more washing done.

Levi and Eleanor had left by now but there was still a huge log behind on the fire, so Greg and Matt went across and dragged it back with the car. Well Matt actually drove the car through the river and up the ramp with the log in tow while Greg rode on the back and supervised the log. Matt did very well up and was very pleased with himself. There's a video on the clips for today on the Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/theroaming5/permalink/4095463917193932/

A few days ago we had a discussion with the kids about whether they wanted to go to the library to which expressed much delight and Greg turned it into a game of "You don't want to go to a library and read boring books do you?' and they'd say back 'Of course we do don't be silly Dad.' There's a link of it on the Facebook group if you're members (if you're not feel free to join):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theroaming5/permalink/4079733858766938/


So off to the library for a few hours while Greg got some work done back at the van. I'm sure the kids would have been there all day if they could but I was getting pretty hungry and we needed some more water and another gas bottle before we headed back for lunch.

After lunch the kids explored more up the river with the canoe and swimming so we enjoyed some peace and quiet for about half an hour. It's something that we haven't had much of for most of this trip as we are normally all together!

Wednesday 22 July

Today was started off with a billy tea. There is something lovely about billy tea, not sure what it is. Maybe its being able to sit there and watch the flames while the water boils. It's just a fun way of having tea rather than just dangling a tea bag in a cup for a while.

We needed to go back into town for a few things and the kids were pretty keen to go back to the library to read more books. First stop was the local play ground.

Then the longed-for library! This time Greg came also and found a nice quiet spot to do some business work.

While they were all occupied, I went to the Op shop again to see if I could find the boys some more bather shorts as they both have tears and holes in them and another swimming shirt for Bek as she's now go a hole in it. Thankfully I was able to find a few pairs of shorts and a swim shirt. YAY for Op shops.

As I said the other day the kids have been collecting buddha belly bamboo (which is just a thick, fat bamboo). Well they have started to create things using the hacksaw, files, glue and hammer! Matt made a flame torch on a pole and some smaller torches to illuminate either side of the steps he'd made going down to the river; Jude made a didgeridoo; and Bek is in the process of making pan pipes! A good tech studies lesson with Dad on how to use the tools safely.

Later in the afternoon a few vans arrived the other side of the river. One van had a mum dog and 2 puppies which the kids really wanted to go and see. So we went across and chatted to the guy and patted the dogs.

Upon returning to our side of the river we thought we'd like to explore up the river just a little altogether as the kids wanted to show us where they had been collecting all the buddha belly from and also a nice deep swimming spot they had found. But before we could go a car arrived and then a lady and man approached us. They looked very official and had a notebook. It was the council coming down to tell us that they had noticed us camping here for the past couple of days and that they thought it was time for us to move on. They didn't want us to go straight away but to make sure that we had moved on by tomorrow.  They then told us that in their council area there is no free camping as the Shire likes people to stick to caravan parks and designated campgrounds so that they can keep those sorts of places running. They were very pleasant about it all and we had quite a chat about different things to do around the places and got some advice about going up the Cape. We had been talking about leaving the next day or the one after, so it wasn't a particular problem.

Once they left we got into bathers and went for our explore. It's such a beautiful lush foresty area we really enjoyed our last explore around the area.

It was close to 5 by the time we go back so we cooked dinner and got on with our evening. We thought since it was our last night in this lovely spot we would make some more damper and toast marshmallows and the kids wanted to take us on a bush walk with there flaming torches. It was a very quick walk and they then crossed the river and came back to get ready for bed by this time it was close to 10pm and we all go ready for bed. 

-- Mim