Cassowaries coast

First I must apologise to Ruby, she was not the dog who was barking yesterday. A young couple who like loud music in their tent also like to go away and leave their dog tied up from time to time.


This area is called Cassowary Coast so we were pleased to see a couple of the birds yesterday, first a male, then a female.  The female is larger and more colourful, which is unusual for birds.  They can run 50kph through dense rainforest, and they can swim.  They can be quite aggressive so it's safer to stay in the car.

                Female cassowary seen near Etta Bay, Nth Qld.
We drove to some of the northern beaches- not impressed with the caravan park at Kurramine, which is right on the beach but with very tight sites. Etta Bay is absolutely lovely- we didn't stop because no dogs are allowed. 


At Mourilyan Harbour we saw a truck unloading molasses into holding bins ready for export.  As we'd toured the sugar mill the previous day, it was interesting to see the next step in the molasses process, and we were also able to see how the sugar itself gets loaded onto ships, in a similar process to the coal loaders at home. While we were there we saw a pretty little bird, obviously a kingfisher. His wings were actually greener than they appear in the photo.

                           Buff Breasted Paradise Kingfisher


We briefly visited Innisfail, quite a large town with many interesting Art Deco buildings. On the way back we detoured through South Johnstone and Mena Creek, where we visited the Paronella Park campsite and decided it was strictly for small vehicles.  We had been thinking of visiting Paronella Park properly but it's $35 per head (seniors)- this includes a night's campsite but it seems a lot if you don't want to stay there.  We could see some of it from the little park on the other side of the creek and were able to see the waterfall- we decided not to bother this trip, perhaps some other time. 

                      Mena Creek Falls and Paronella Park
In Tully the other day, we climbed the big boot, which is 7.9 metres tall- it represents the rainfall they had in one year.

                Val and Marg in big rubber boot, Tully, Qld.  


It's a bit drizzly here today but we're not complaining, as we've been so lucky with the weather.  It's quite warm, last night I had just a sheet for most of the night, no blanket. That's the warmest night we've had yet.