Let's go to Ingham

This morning we've moved about 70kms north to the outskirts of Ingham, to a pleasant caravan park, The Palms or some such name, which appears to be very well set up and maintained.  First order of the day was to get the washing done, then sit and watch it flapping in the breeze while enjoying a cuppa.  It's a lovely sunny day again, as it's been for the last week or two- probably a bit warmer today, maybe 26 degrees.  We still haven't had much rain, only about 3 days in 11 weeks, so we're not complaining.  Chris and I have done over 8,000 kilometres so far- the van hasn't done as many kms because we leave it behind while we go exploring.


We ended up staying at Toomulla for 4 days- it was a pleasant spot  (though suffering a plague of mosquitoes) and the people were very friendly.  


We'll stay here a few days, visiting several waterfalls in the area including the longest sheer drop in Australia.  We'll do a few "town" things like pharmacy, optometrist (just for a screw in my spare glasses), barber, and ATM.  Then we'll look at some free camps in the general area- we're getting close to famous places like Mission Beach, Hinchinbrook Island and Cardwell, so we'll have a good look around. 


An afternoon drive into Ingham showed it's a fairly big country town, sporting lovely parks, two supermarkets, and the usual services.  Smaller than Bowen, bigger than St George.  The houses are modest but the gardens are neat and attractive, even the road edges beside sugarcane fields have been very recently mowed.


We drove out to Forrest Beach, which is a very long sandy stretch with the extremely large Hinchinbrook Island in the distance. Intrigued by a caravan park sign which said there was one at the hotel, we followed the signs to the hotel, which is oddly located in a back street, but right next to the beach.  We enquired about rates at the caravan park, $30 per night, the same as we are paying here, so we decided to spend a few days there exploring the coast after we leave here tomorrow.  It looked very pleasant, and we'll be able to have our happy hour on the beach if we wish.

                   Hinchinbrook Island from Forrest Beach.
A raptor landed in a nearby tree while we were looking at the beach, so we were able to get a good look at him.  We think he's a juvenile peregrine falcon.  Lovely to see at such close range.

                                  Juvenile peregrine falcon


Driving south to a turnoff we'd passed on the way to Ingham, we tried to go to Jourama Falls, but were thwarted by lack of information, which is very annoying.  All the tourist maps show the falls and other points of interest without ever saying how far they are from the town, or how far you have to walk when you get there- this was a 3 km walk from the carpark, and we were in a national park so Ruby had to stay in the car, and John did not like to leave Marg with her for that long.  He suggested they both stay behind but we couldn't let them do that so we left.  Shame, because it's probably quite lovely- the creek we crossed several times was certainly pretty. 

                              Creek near Jourama Falls.