Sad to go south
Trip Start
Jul 05, 2012
1
9
15
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Kurramine Beach
What I did
Mission Beach
Kurramine To Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Hi everyone
Our time is up in beautiful Port Douglas and today we have to say goodbye to Carol and Neil and sadly drive out of the park and turn south on to the Bruce Highway. It's been a wonderful two weeks but now other adventures await us and it's time to find out what they are.
The amazing scenery between Port Douglas and Cairns will be imprinted in my mind forever: great white sanded beaches framed by coconut palms with an ocean of glittering blue, and always an island in the picture.
But don't look back, look forward - and here we are floating along through Cairns; my phone rings and a friend from home talks to me all the way through, while Nev concentrates on making all the right road turns. Thanks Bron, it was so good to hear from you.
Three hours later we turn off to Kurramine Beach, one of those well kept secrets which we discovered on a previous visit. There is just one site left in the park: ours, because we booked it several days ago!
Next morning we are walking the beach and looking for cowrie shells - only found one. Down to mission Beach for the day and how lucky can you be - a Cassowary crossed the road in front of us while driving through a rainforest reserve. (Lyn, you went home too soon!) I even managed to take a photo.
Our next stop is Ingham, a place we really like. There is a strong Italian influence in this quite classy country town, which thrives on the success of the sugar cane industry. Today we drove out to Broadwater state park, a lovely secluded place surrounded by mountains where there is bush camping and swimming in a wide mountain stream which looks as pure as snow.
Back in town we went to the Italian butchery and boughts steaks which Nev cooked in our skillet and which melted in the mouth. These were accompanied by the fresh vegies we bought from Skippo on our way in to Ingham yesterday. Having been on a diet of mainly fish for the past few weeks Nev was dying for red meat...
Tip for travellers: Sikppo's fresh produce stall is situated about 3 klm north of Ingham on the Bruce Highway. He sells prime fruit and veg from his farm, plus some home made goods. We bought paw paws, aubergine, zucchinis, bananas, mango chutney,watermelon and a boiled fruit cake.
Later we toured some of the residential areas where magnificent Italian two story villas set the scene. More of these can be found out on the sugar cane farms, where Italian migrants began their work as cane cutters and labourers, eventually owning and operating many of the cane farms at Ingham.There are some great cafes in town, and Rose, you would like the coffee here.
On our last night in Ingham all is quiet in camp then suddenly our neighbour calls everyone outside: he has had a phone call from a friend who follows astronomy, to say that the international space station is now passing over north Queensland. We all rushed outside to see a dark sky bright with stars including the Southern Cross, and zooming towards us a fast moving object with lights forming a square. We stared it through the sky- only a few minutes and it was gone. Googled it for more info and discvered it is a project of the US, Russia and other countries and is fully manned with a changing staff of up to eight people who are rocketted on and off. Too much rocket science for me...
Nev and I are off to Magnetic Island tomorrow to catch up with Prue and others from home.
More to come....
