It was time for a much needed break! Our friends Jock & Annie were working at the Jabiru Safari Lodge located within the Mareeba Wetlands Reserve and asked us to join them for the Eclipse of the Sun. More about that later!
The kitchen was now installed and most architraves and skirting complete.
Another new road to travel so we decided to take a couple of detours. The first town, Ingham is known mainly for sugar cane farming.Victoria Sugar Mill, the largest sugar mill in Australia and one of the largest in the southern hemisphere is owned by CSR Limited. Much of the cane is transported to the mills by light tramlines and they cross the roads all over the place.
20kms East is Forrest Beach which is the surfing beach for the town of Ingham. It contains a small holiday settlement, spread for 4 km along the 14 km long beach. There is a store, hotel and caravan park at the beach, together with the Forrest Beach Surf Life Saving Club, founded in 1928. The reserve also contains an amenities block, playground and picnic facilities.
The stinger net is directly in front of the surf lifesaving club. The Tropical North Queensland waters off Australia contain many creatures, including some dangerous jellyfish, known commonly as marine stingers. Marine “stinger season” generally runs from November through to May/June. During this period, the dangerous jellyfish are of particular concern.
Driving through many road works, one in particular that stands out is on the Cardwell Range, just North of Ingham. It is a 4km stretch of the highway that is being upgraded, the major feature being 180 metre long, high-level viaduct, which is being constructed across one of the deep gullies on the northern side to allow animals to cross safely under the road. A viaduct is the technical name for a high-level, bridge-like structure used to cross valleys and ravines.
There is still evidence of Cyclone Yasi which hit the region in February 2011. Yasi, the most powerful cyclone to hit Australia in a century, packed winds of 290 kilometres (181 miles) per hour across a front that was hundreds of kilometres wide, with a seething eye measuring about 35 kilometres in width.
We had heard lots about Mission Beach so decided to take a bit of a detour, doing a loop back to the highway. Today, what were once separate villages have now grown such that they are considered one town, Mission Beach. The villages are, from south to north, South Mission Beach, Wongaling Beach, Mission Beach, Bingil Bay and Carmoo.
Mission Beach is now a thriving tourist town that has been able to maintain its small town feel. One reason for this is that the town is spread out along a thin strip of land between the ocean and the hills and farmland behind. This has spread out a large tourism market, and the village doesn’t feel as busy as one might expect. A popular tourist destination of Dunk Island which lies 4 km offshore.
It was then on towards Innisfail, turning off on to the Palmerston Highway. This Highway runs through Wooroonooran National Park. A scenic drive that winds through picturesque rainforest. This was the start to the climb up to the Tablelands and it was a steep climb too. We stopped at Crawfords Lookout which offers views over the North Johnstone River gorge, spectacular! As it was getting late we decided to stay at Henrietta Creek for the night. A National Park Camp Site for $5.45 each per night.
There is so much to see in this area we felt we were missing out a lot. Definitely will visit the Tablelands again. We set off early the next morning, wanting to catch up with Jock before he had to go off to work. Well that didn’t happen!! As we were driving through very heavy rain the windscreen wipers decided to blow a fuse. Tui finally found somewhere to pull over and replace the fuse. A few kms later another blown fuse and we spent a good hour or so trying to fix the problem. Tui ended up having 2 wires hanging out of the dash and said that when he needed the wipers I had to touch the 2 wires together. Luckily that wasn’t necessary.
We had been told to look out for a sign that would direct us to a Giant Curtain Fig Tree. Found it and 3kms down a side road was a majestic site.
The Curtain Fig Tree is one of the largest trees in tropical North Queensland and one of the best known attractions on the Atherton Tableland.
Normally these figs germinate on top of another tree and try to grow roots into the ground. Once this important step is accomplished, the fig will grow vigorously, finally kill the hosting tree and then grow on independently. In this case, the hosting tree tilted towards the next one; the fig also grows around that one. Its curtain of aerial roots drops 15 metres (49 feet) to the ground.
As you can see from the heading, this is blog #1 of our trip. So much to write about we thought we had better do it in stages. It is great to be able to share something different for a change. Until the next chapter “Laugh more, live longer”.