Day 19 Innisfail to Mission Beach Qld 24 July 2016
As usual our leaving day started early and we got on the road at about 8am for our short drive to Mission Beach, it is a mere 51km. The caravan park we wanted to stay at didn’t take bookings so we thought to give us our best chance we would get there early.
We stopped outside the Cassowary Council Mission Beach CP at about 8:45am. They had the full sign out front, but we were early. So we walked in and asked about a powered site. The lady there was very casual and basically said she didn’t know if anyone was leaving today and that definitely none of the powered sites were leaving. So that was that, Plan B came into play. We drove to South Mission Beach and the Dunk Island View CP, they were almost full, but gave us the choice of 2 sites. We walked around and had a look at them, chose the better of the 2 and were setting up by 9:45am!!
We had decided that this would be a quiet day, so we took our time. Once we were all set up I gave the van and the car a quick wash, they were both caked with red mud and road grime from the wet weather and the trip in from the west. Deb cleaned the inside of the van and by 11:30 we had done all that as well as 4 loads of washing!!
After a bite of lunch we took a stroll down to the beach, played a little Ingress and just relaxed.
At about 5:30 we headed back down to the beach for a walk along the sand to watch the sunset. It was so relaxing and the light as the sun set was (to use Deb’s word) stunning. 🙂
We had pan fried Barramundi and salad for tea. While I was fishing in the river at the Innisfail CP the son of the owner struck up a bit of a conversation with me about the local river fishing. Turns out he was an avid fisho and told me of a few of his fav spots, one in particular he shared with a croc!! Anyway, long story short, he came around to our caravan early Saturday night and gave us about 750g of barra!! Said it was too much for him and thought we would like it. I thanked him very much and he left.
The fish was delicious!!
Day 20 Mission Beach Qld 25 July 2016
8am seems like a good time to wake.
We had a slow start. Breakfast, a cup of tea/coffee (maybe 2) and catch up on what’s going on around the world with the news and our various interests.
We eventually dragged ourselves into the world. We had a short drive around this end of the beach, did a little Ingress and then made our way to the shops to do a top up shop.
Back to the van to have a quick bite of lunch then out again to join up with our Island tour. A nice easy stroll about 800m up the beach to the Water Taxi shop.
Our tour left at about 12.45pm, they were running late after dropping a wedding celebrant out to a private island. There were about 18 on the island tour. The boat was nothing really flash but comfortable and great for the conditions. Our captain/driver/tour guide , Bryce, had a great sense of humour and was well versed on the local geography and history. After a very amusing safety briefing we headed out towards Bedarra Island. Bryce told us he had seen a mother Humpback whale and her new calf just between Bedarra and Dunk Islands about 40mins ago. As we were cruising out everyone was watching for them when I saw something at about 10 o’clock off the bow. And there they were. We motored over close to them and watched them for probably 15 min or so. The mother looked like she was just resting and the calf stayed close to her side. Fascinating. There was a suggestion from Bryce that the calf was born this morning.
We continued on and Bryce gave us a bit of a geography and history rundown of the area.
Mission Beach 14km long divided into 3 sections by 2 creeks that “break” the beach. The Great Dividing Range runs along the horizon to the west of Mission Beach. Mission Beach got its name as a Mission was set up in the area for the local Aboriginal community. But after a 1918 cyclone killed 7 of the community the mission and community were moved to Palm Island (where their descendants still live). He pointed out a few towns on shore , highlighting Tully, whose honour is having the greatest rainfall of any Austalian town, around 4m per year (about 160”!)
There were several Island Resorts up here, most prominent were Dunk Island and Hideaway Bay on Bedarra Island. But a combination of the 1990’s pilot strike and a series of devastating cyclones basically broke the resorts and after cyclone Yasi in 2006 they never reopened.
Bedarra Island is now home to many people and many holiday homes, with one or 2 private exclusive resorts. The Dunk Island resort was bought by a mining magnate who has rebuilt some of it, but it is now mainly used for private functions and has a sunset bar. There are still many people using Dunk Island as a day trip and the council has camping facilities there.
After doing a lap of Bedarra Island we landed on a beach near the old Hideaway Resort and swam for about 1 ½ hrs. I snorkelled for a while, but the water was fairly murky due to all the recent rain, and all the sea floor was covered in a layer of silt. But there was plenty of fish life and I saw a small stingray. We had a great time swimming and relaxing on the island.
We boarded the boat at about 2:45 had a look at a few other islands then headed back to the mainland. We had a great time and both agreed it was worth every cent of the cost and probably a lot more.
We walked back to the CP via the beach, love it.
We finished our day with Karumba Bream and salad for tea, delicious. (and healthy)
Number of Views :1843
