The nights of Monday 5th until Wednesday 7th July we slept at Toomulla Beach. This is a free camping reserve (above left) with nothing spectacular going for it except that it has some grass and it is close to the beach (above right). Typically, the water is shallow for half a kilometer to sea. This was the first location from which Frank and I could have a relatively clear chat on the radio (5:00pm to 5:30pm). It was also the first time that I used the Icom 756 pro III instead of the Icom 706 MkIIG. It was also the first time that I managed to get any sort of Earth or grounding. When we left on Thursday morning the park was so packed with caravans and motor-homes that we had difficulty maneuvering through them, in reverse, to get out. Connie wanted to demonstrate our displeasure by panel beating some cars for free with a hammer.
Thursday 8th July .. in order to reach our next stop, we passed through Tully where the highest rainfall has been recorded in Queensland - and it's never stopped (for long). Everybody is familiar with "The Big Boot" (above left). The height of this boot demonstrates the depth of water that falls in Tully during one year! The hills above the town show the menacing clouds ready to provide some more rain (above right). There was a little excitement getting out of Tully and over the next small mountain range. A semi trailer started to lose traction climbing the hill and jack-knifed as it slid sideways. The road was blocked for half an hour and there was nothing to take photos of when we reached the spot where it happened.
Our next stop is Wondaling Beach which is in between "North Mission Beach" and "South Misssion Beach" ... so why isn't it called Mission Beach ?? Actually the place called Mission Beach is only a kilometer along the road. The rain here is just enough to be annoying - it's just a fine drizzle. Fortunately it is NOT cold. Midday temperatures of 26 degrees are usual :-) The kangaroos (maybe they are wallabies?) don't seem to care at all (above left) but the cassowaries can get aggressive towards speeding motorists (above right) - so why aren't the police breeding them?
Saturday 10th July and we have reached "the end of the line". We decided not to go to further north. Late next week we will start heading South but will try to stay inland a little (unless of course the temperature drops below .. "warm").
Sunday was mostly sunny and the backpackers (left & right) made the most of it.
There are noticeably fewer "grey nomads" now. In any public place you can hear French, German, etc.. and occasionally an Aussie in the ice cream parlours.
There are dozens of panel vans from "Travelers Auto Barn" and "Wicked Campers". The sign writing is usually very poor (left) with badly matching color schemes. I'm sure they could learn a thing or two from the Aboriginal Art centre (right).
Monday 12th July. It's not very sunny so we decided to do some touring of the northern beaches starting at Palm Cove about 30 klm north of Cairns. Was this one of the Christopher Skase projects? Some of the buildings (left) along the beach (right) are very impressive with some very expensive names like Peppers and Sebel (I've never stayed at any Sebel hotels .. just seen them in magazines). Notice the roof top swimming pools with blue tinted glass walls - I was told that nude bathing in the pools causes quite a gathering on the beach opposite.
With very changeable weather the surrounding mountains are often very picturesque - and so are the multi million dollar mansions that are built on the hill sides.
Wednesday 14th July .. On our last day in Cairns we went on a Gourmet Food Tour which included a coffee plantation (which was a real step back in time), a winery, a macadamia nut plantation, a distillery, a cheese and chocolate factory, an ice cream shop of course, some huge rainforest trees and a pub where we ate the biggest banana prawns I've ever seen. I must have looked like a "homeless hungry old man" - several young chicks gave me the huge prawns that they could not eat. Unless.. ?? maybe .. they thought I was cute !
Bruno and his wife (left) produce several blends of coffee as well as some tasty chocolate coated coffee beans. They do almost everything manually - and that includes picking out the darkest beans to be coated with chocolate.
The tour guide confused me no end by referring to "cherries" - the name he gives to coffee beans before they are picked (left). They keep dozens of cats (above right) and chooks to help reduce eliminate vermin and insects so they don't have to spray trees with insecticide.
The macadamia nut plantation uses a clever idea from the golf clubs for collecting the nuts from underneath the trees. The plastic spike like pins roll over the nuts and they get wedged between them - then the red plastic comb pushes the nuts out of and into the basket. Again we took home a dozen packets of different flavoured nuts, to eat with ice cream of course. They have their own way of eradicating vermin - a bloody big snake (right) who lives in their processing shed.
I guess every body has seen the effects of "fig vines". Buried somewhere inside that mass of vines (left), there used to be a tree which rotted away hundreds of years ago - hundreds? I dunno but it sounds better than "a long time ago".
Here's a tall story. Each year, people actually foot race to the top of "[?????'s] Pyramid Mountain" (right) and back down again. Last year the race was won with a time of less than two hours - nah .. must have misunderstood!
Lets start go to Part 6 eh!