July 2 - 3 (Day 153-154) - Abergowrie State Forest to Innisfail

Thursday 2 July

 Yesterday and last night it has rained pretty continuously, some lighter and some heavier but pretty constant. I'd noticed a small wet patch on the floor when the kids went to bed but didn't think anything of it because we had a water container on the floor that we had used so I thought maybe some had spilt.

Well...! In the morning that patch was a lot bigger and had gone into the whole back tunnel and the shoe cupboard and into the walk way and ruined boxes that we had packed stuff into! :( So out it all came so that we could dry and work out where the leak might have been coming from.

Pulling EVERYTHING out of the back tunnel
before we left Abergowrie State Forest

We think it might have been running along the poptop and down the side and into some crevice that needs a little more silicone but can't be absolutely sure. So we made some arrangements to stay in a caravan park in Mission Beach so that we could wash & dry everything that we had used to mop up all the water. Also to be able to have power to use the hairdryer for drying the carpet and other spots before putting everything back.

So we got packed up and farewelled our little spot in the bush. What a gorgeous place to spend a few days...

Our little slice of paradise.

 On our drive to Mission beach we started to seeing Banana plantations. It's interesting all the different plantations as we drive up higher. Lower down the coast & inland have been lots of sugar cane plantation and there are still a few here & there that stretch all the way from Brisbane close to just past Cairns.


We spotted a stall we could buy fresh bananas and took a brief look at the process. Yummo!
It was a hive of activity when we got there as they were pulling banana stalks in, hanging them, washing them and separating them into smaller bunches. They seemed to have quite a few green tree frogs around which they passed to the kids to hold.

We also needed to do some food shopping before getting to the caravan park, which was a bit of a pain because there just wasn't any room to put anything away until we'd had a chance to dry everything. So here is the mess which involves a big shop in a caravan and a small flood, before law and order (semi-) resumes!

Pig. Sty. This is what sometimes happens
when you need to do a big shop!

When we finally got into Mission Beach it was time to pull everything out and get the carpet drying.

Mission Beach itself is a very pretty beach. It's one of those mystical places we'd heard about in years past, along with Airlie Beach, Port Douglas and Noosa, which we knew were somewhere up north, but never really knew anything else about. On first glance it just looks like a normal Adelaide beach, i.e. long, flat, and with fairly white sand; but as you step out and look along the shoreline you see the treeline is dotted with palm trees.

Mission Beach. We only charge 50c for postcard royalties :D

The day had been a challenging one to say the least. So Greg suggested I have a break from cooking and we eat out. It was very much appreciated.

Friday 3 July

Greg and I walked the hundred or so metres down to the beach for our morning coffee which was peaceful and relaxing. Greg collected a coconut and brought it back to have with breakfast, which Jude enjoyed pulling apart!

The day was started off with bacon and eggs cooked by Matt (yummo 👌) While this was happening we gave Bek the job of looking up places to explore in Mission beach. She came up with a list of things and the first thing was to explore the Djiru National Park.

We drove along this track for a while and came to a clearing where you could do numerous walks from. Such beautiful lush green rainforests up here.
We explored for quite a while along the track and even came across a little snake. Jude has on this trip built up a fascination with snakes and would really love to get a pet snake when we return home. I'm not so keen on the idea but we will wait and see what happens when we get home.

As we were walking we came across a track the veered off to the left and decided to have a closer look and we came across this beautiful looking water hole and stream running nearby. As we weren't dressed for swimming we continued our walk and then came back to enjoy a cool off. Little side tracks like this reveal some of the pleasures of travelling like we are. If you have time to just explore off the beaten track a bit there are sometimes some true gems hidden in the bush!

After our swim we headed off towards the Highway towards Innisfail. As we were driving we saw a sign that said fresh barramundi. We turned off and wondered if it was somewhere you could actually try you hand at catching a fresh fish yourself. But it was just a barramundi farming place that only the owners could do the fishing because of all the legal papers they'd have to fill out to be able to allow anyone to do some fishing. So instead we bought enough fish to have dinner that night and it had only been caught and fillets a few hours prior to our arrival. 

We also came across another fruit stall that had bananas and papayas and stopped. We bought 2 red papayas and a yellow paw paw and some bananas. Now I think they are pretty similar fruits from the smell and from what I've read but I could be wrong. Greg and I aren't huge fans of melons but we thought we would give them a try anyway as we'd had papaya before and liked it.

We arrived just out of the town of Innisfail in the late afternoon and enjoyed a cuppa while the boys played in some nearby mud with their cars and Bek read a book.

We enjoyed our barramundi lightly crumbed with potatoe and salad. I'm sure you all wanted to know that. :) If you like eating fish I highly recommend barramundi.

After dinner we cut open one of the papayas to eat for dessert. Oh dear it stank. They aren't the best smelling fruits at the best of times apparently but this stank the van out. If you can imagine the smell about 20 minutes after someone has eaten something which violently disagreed with their stomach... (!!!), you may be able to guess how the caravan smelt briefly! Then we chopped open the next and that smelt the same, and the third unfortunately wasn't much better. What a disappointment. This has really put us off trying more papaya. But we might try again we'll just see.

-- Mim (+Greg)