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Airlie beach to Mission Beach(July)
8 am off on the road to Townsville, still mountains and ocean everywhere and beautiful lawns everywhere. We took the route via Bowen from Airlie hopefully to avoid the main highway for a while, we did but not for long, about 60 k out of Townsville we cross over the Burdekin river which is huge and has quite a lot of water in it, we have cane fields to the left, mango trees to the right and hills ahead. They are cutting the cane in this area, but we haven’t seen a cane trains yet.
Stopped at the Big 4 in Townsville, behind the roadhouse, before booking in we took a tour of the town, which looked quite pleasant, but it’s difficult to drive around too much with a large attachment (the Jayco) to the car, especially when it is quite a hilly town with lot’s of no through roads that they tell you about after you’ve gone a fair way up them. The park was fine and even though attached to a very busy roadhouse it wasn’t noisy.
Heading off to Mission Beach we stop at the Frosty Mango – the entrance to the Wet Tropics – for a drink and something to eat, very nice. En route we also stop at Ingham, which is supposed to be a very Italian town, for Clive to get something for his itch from the pharmacy. He is very impressed by the ‘bandstand’ construction they have in the town centre and takes loads of photos of it for our local council to have a look at.
From Ingham we drive to Wallaman Falls, which are the longest single drop falls in Australia. The drive up to the falls was VERY scary, especially towing the van. Very steep, narrow, very windy, then half way up, with the clouds below you, there is a sign saying not suitable for caravans – bit late when you’ve got that far! So we continue, when we get to the top, guess what, there’s a parking zone for caravans!! The falls were very spectacular and worth the drive, and the bitten finger nails and near nervous breakdown, all me not Clive I’m glad to say. They are 268 metres straight drop with a rainbow going right through the middle, absolutely fabulous. We were very excited to see two glorious blue butterflies (Ulysses) while we were looking around, that in itself would have made the drive worthwhile. We decided that the rest of the people up there appeared to be settled for quite some time so perhaps it would be best if we left before others, who would want to drive slightly faster than us, wanted to leave. I found the downhill trip slightly less scary than the uphill one I’m glad to say. Backtrack to Ingham then on to Cardwell for a bite of lunch, a lovely drive with occasional views to the water. The Bruce highway at Cardwell actually runs right by the ocean. You have ocean, beach, highway, then your ocean front café, which while the view is nice lunch can be a bit noisy.
Pass through a lot of fruit growing areas on the road to Tully which is apparently the wettest place in Australia, it has a sugar mill but not much else then its 20 odd kilometres down the road to Mission Beach. Arrived at South Mission Beach caravan park around fourish, a lovely park, right on the waters edge, you can see Dunk Island from there. The sites aren’t large but adequate, ours is right opposite the pool area which is very nice, the gardens are lovely, amenities blocks great, there is a restaurant attached to the park which overlooks the ocean, hills all around, very green, very lush, lots of warnings to beware of cassowaries but none to be seen. A very pretty place to stay a day or so.
The weather while we were here wasn’t too bad, a little humid, but you have to expect that in the wet tropics and also a bit overcast most of the time, nevertheless nothing to put you off going out for walks in the rainforest (in the hope of seeing a cassowary), and driving around the area. We went to Paronella Park which was built by a Spanish migrant in the early 1900’s, partly as a home and partly as a ‘tourist’ attraction. In its heyday it had a ballroom, cinema, restaurant etc. but fire devastated it . The whole story of Paronella Park is really interesting. It is an amazing place, the buildings that have survived and the ruins of the remainder are quite unique and the current owners have made it a ‘must see’ for the area. It is built right next to the Mena Falls, which are very pretty and the water from them forms a large swimming hole and there are lots of creeks that run through the park with walkways by them. Back in the 1920’s he used the falls to generate electricity and the park had electricity years before the township of Mena 15 k. up the road did, it was quite an experience. On the return journey we stopped in at Innisfail for lunch overlooking the water.

The boat came out of storage whilst we were here, we pumped it up and got all the safety gear out and took it over to Dunk Island. I have to admit I was a little worried taking it out on the open ocean, but it was very calm and you could see Dunk Island from the shore. As you look out towards the island there is another island on the left, Clive was convinced that the Dunk Island resort was on the far side of the island and that we had to go between the two islands. As we were puttering across and came closer to the islands I could see deck chairs etc. on the beach of Dunk and queried why he was so sure the resort was the other side, but he was still convinced, I then pointed out that the ferry which runs from North Mission to Dunk all the time was heading for the jetty on our right and not coming towards us as would have been the case if the resort was on the far side of the island. He gave in and we headed in the other direction and beached the boat near the jetty.
At the jetty they have a nice coffee shop and a couple of souvenir places then you walk, either along the beach or pathways to the actual resort. The deckchairs did belong to the resort, but you cannot see it from the ocean side it is very well camouflaged by the palm trees, it is a very pretty place and you can well understand why it is a favourite holiday destination for Queenslanders and tourists alike who just want to relax for a few days. We didn’t enquire about all their facilities, but from what I saw I know I would prefer to stay there rather than Daydream Island, not so commercialised yet very nice. We puttered back to the mainland and there were a couple of very nice rangers who helped us pull the boat up the beach to our homemade trailer, then we pulled it back to the van for cleaning and drying before it gets packed away. It was rather disconcerting a few weeks later to read in the newspaper about a commercial fishing boat that was in the same area as we were when it sunk and two people of the three people on board were lost drowned or attacked by sharks. Goes to show how careful you have to be, we hadn’t given anything like that a thought, if I had I don’t know whether I would have gone in our little runabout.( Note: Dunk Island is 4 kms off the coast we travelled in the lee of the island, the local weather forcast was for calm seas for about a week and we had flares, paddles, mobile phone and EPIRB aboard) Mission Beach was lovely and I would recommend it to anyone either as a base for exploring the whole area or, as we did, or for a few days relaxation. The expression ‘where the rainforest meets the sea’ is nearly as overdone in this area as ‘an oasis in the outback’ is in others, but it is true, there are some wonderful spots for picnicking, just walking on the beach or through the forests, and while it is nearly at peak travel time nowhere (apart from the caravan parks) appears crowded, there is always somewhere you can get away from people and be completely alone if that’s what you want. This area is famous for it's cassowary's there are signs everywhere saying slow down, do not runover the birds, beware of these dangerous large birds, and despite keeping a vigilant eye we only found their droppings. After we had left we were told that day break is when they are most likely to be seen in a number of preserved areas.

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