Friday 9th December 2022

Okay, so we were up early - had an obligatory coffee and then on the road again. We headed towards the coastal town of Bowen - where they also make good coffee. Bowen is OK, but we did expect it to be a bit more like Airlie Beach - which it isn't. Next port of call was Ayr where we did a bit of a food shop, and had a light lunch on the way.

Arrived in Townsville later in the day - this is a large city and port. We booked into a motel called the Yongalla Lodge Motel. It was really quite surreal - in fact it is one of the oldest motels etc in the city - very much 'colonial style'  - turn of the 20th Century. Very well maintained and really good sized room.

Merle had a bit of a 'senior moment' here - thinking that she had put our clothing in the washing machine and inserted to correct money - pushed the button - oops - not the washing machine but the dryer. She went to see that lady running the motel - a very 'mousey' little lady - Nicole -but very friendly and helpful. She said that she would sort the washing out for us.

Decided to have a BBQ that evening - sausages, eggs, fried potatoes and baked beans. Had a bit of a moment trying to fire up the BBQ, it worked in the end - but at the expense of a few eyebrow and hairs. Compensated by a couple of glasses of wine.

The beach at Bowen

Saturday 10th December 2022

Left Townsville early and made our way towards Cardwell on the coast. stopped off for a 'coffee' at a place called Ingham, where we got talking to a local couple who mentioned a place called Lucinda Point, which is a detour off the main road to Cardwell. Lucinda Point is a beautiful spot on the coast, there is a lovely holiday resort and a large boating ramp. Not a good place to go swimming though!!

Views of Lucinda Point

Back on the road on our way to Cardwell. someway along you come across a 'lookout'. We have stopped here before - and it is without question one of the most incredible places to stop and look out over the countryside to the sea and Hinchinbrook Island. It is almost impossible to accurately and adequately describe and even the photos don't do it justice. It is really quite 'jurassic'

We then pushed on to Cardwell - which is a very pleasant small Queensland coast town. We were booked into the really comfortable motel. took a walk down to the long pier - where we had in previous years seen a saltwater crocodile come up to the surface. We got talking to some locals who were fishing off the pier and they told us that a chap had been' taken' by a Crocodile just off the coast - apparently it rammed his mall boat and then had him. The local people however, had an idea where he hung out - so they went off and hunted it - finally shooting and another. Not a good place to swim!!

The view across to Hinchinbrook Island is so impressive. Hinchinbrook is an isolated uninhabited island - although you are allowed to camp there. It is just like something out of Jurassic Park'.

Decided to eat out this evening, and found a small cafe - Merle had deep-fried crab clawscand Pete had deep fried sea scallops - we both had chips and a bottle of beer.

Sunday 11th December 2022

Up early again - having watched England lose to France (we were robbed!!!!). We do like to be up and away so that we can arrive at our chosen destination reasonably early..  This day we are heading towards Mission Beach (fabulous spot).  On the way up we took a detour up to the Murray Gorge. A. But, when we arrived - well worth the detour bit of a trek, and held-up by traffic road works - in the middle of nowhere. When we arrived, it was worth every moment, a lovely gorge with no too much water. There was a walk up to the 'falls', but due to the heat, our ages and the distance we decided to give it a miss. Just stayed around the gorge area.

Views at Murray Gorge

From Murray we headed on to a place called Tully. Many years ago, Merle was in Australia with Jan and they went White Water Rafting, and it was at Tulley, so we thought that we would go an find the place. We set off on what was supposed to be about a 40km trip (each way). Anyway we drove and drove through a lot of very flat land which was almost completely covered with banana plantations - we must have travelled for at least 10kms by the side of just one plantation. We eventually entered Tully Gorge and continued t drive and drive - never seeing a place from which you could launch a raft. Eventually we arrived at a deadens - the site of a large electricity generating plant. OK, turn round and back. On the way up we saw 'wild dog or Dingo' and on the way back a large lizard on the road and a reasonably (maybe 2 feet long - didn't stop to measure) black snake slivering across the road.

Arrived in Mission Beach late in the afternoon and booked into our motel. We have been to Mission Beach many times and we still enjoy it there. It is reasonably small, quite and pretty laid back. It also has a lovely beach. We decided to stay in Mission Beach for 2 days and basically relax. The first evening we had a meal of scrambled eggs, mushrooms and ham on toast (all cooked in a microwave). We actually also managed to lock ourselves out of our room! The following day was very lazy, we had a lovely walk along the beach, watched some tourist tandem skydivers landing on the beach and had a lovely swim in the motel pool. In the evening we treated ourselves to a really nice meal in the Castaways Resort. Merle had Coral Trout on a bed of prawns and fresh salad, and Pete had a slice of Pork loin (about an inch thick) which was so beautifully cooked it literally did melt in your mouth. we had chips, Merle had a Gin & tonic and Pete had a Great Northern Beer. Guess what - afterwards we had another brilliant 'coffee'.

It is such a shame, the whole area is covered by wonderful beaches going down to lovely blue seas - BUT you can't swim in the sea. It is very dangerous, there are saltwater crocodiles off all of the beaches and at various times of the year - like now - the 'jellyfish' are around and thy can be very dangerous. What however they do is put out a square of netting into the sea which basically stops (or you hope it does) the jelly fish etc getting through.

Mission Beach

'Eating Out'

Tuesday 13th December 2022

Left Mission Beach after breakfast with our destination being the family farm in Mutchilba - Stannary Hills Farm. Headed up the coast through lots and lots of sugar cane and banana plantations to Innisfail

At Innisfail we headed inland. We saw a sign off to the right going to Mamu Rainforest. So, reckoning that there might be coffee there off we headed. Sadly no coffee !, but we did go into the Mumu Rainforest Walk. This starts as a track through the rainforest and then you come to a raised 'skywalk' and a number of raised metal cantilevers platforms that protrude our into the forest, halfway (about 2 kms), is a metal tower - which obviously we climbed and from the top the view if unbelievable as you are above the whole forest and can see for miles and miles. It was also a good exercise walk, and luckily we were the only people there.

We left Mamu and made our way towards Atherton in the Tablelands. on the way we saw a sign to the Milanda Creamery - a few kilometres along is a little car  - part of the creamery, where we indulged in coffee and  various flavoured cheese cakes - Lime & Lemon for Merle, Blueberry & Plum for Pete, obviously we also had ice cream with it. Excellent.

Next, and last big town is Atherton, which is the largest on the Tablelands. The weather started to change as you are quite high up and are more in temperate climate. By the time we got to Atherton it was a full scale thunder and lightning storm, at one point the water running down the streets was a good 6 inches deep.

Because of the weather we decided not to take a short-cut that we know across to the farm, but headed to Mareeba and then on to the farm at Mutchilba - temperature on arrival - 36 degrees C.

That is the end of Phase One - the big drive. Phase 2 will be 'life on then farm'