Cassowaries

Thursday, 28 June 2012

For some reason, we were on the road much earlier than usual this morning. It was very humid, with rain threatening as we joined the many trucks and caravans heading north. The road continued to be good, with some roadworks to slow the traffic down at times. Major works just south of Cardwell will definitely improve the road, once they are finished.

Once again, we were subjected to the odd disgruntled truck driver who doesn’t live caravans. After listening to his description of caravan drivers (he had a VERY limited vocabulary and could only think of words containing no more than four letters – unless finishing in “ing”), Leslie became a little fed up, grabbed the two-way handset and told the truck driver what caravan drivers think of them. Then there was dead silence and no more comments about caravans!

We had a short stop at Ingham for a leg stretch before continuing, through the rain, to South Mission Beach. This is considered wet tropics and is also the wettest place in Queensland, but at least it wasn’t cold (25 degrees). The jungle around here is also home to the cassowary and there were numerous signs warning us of the dangers of wandering cassowaries. Never having seen one in the wild, we were amazed to come across one of these large birds right beside the road!

The BIG4 Beachcomber Coconut Caravan Village at South Mission Beach is right on the beach – such a beautiful setting and a really nice caravan park. We ended up with a smaller site which made for a few tight reversing manoeuvres and we are a little long for the slab, but who cares – it is warm and tropical. Cat is happy to tuck a hibiscus behind his ear and catch up on the news. As the rain stopped before we arrived here, we were able to have a stroll along part of the beach – at 14 kms long, a short stroll was quite sufficient – and have a look at Dunk Island just across the water. Cyclone Yasi damage is still very apparent, but vegetation is starting to return.

Afternoon tea (or afternoon wee dram, rather) turned into a bit of a battle when a cassowary wanted to join the party! Unfortunately, they are rather large and can be quite viscous, so care has to be exercised when telling them to buzz off!