The highs and lows are to be found both in the landscape and the way we are feeling. The landscape continues to be awesome and I use that word in the true sense. The mountains still tower over us on the right, wreathed in clouds and the weather still blowing in and forming in front of our eyes. The road winds its way along the coast, with the ocean stretching away to the left, and sometimes the beach and waves come right up to the edge of the highway. All along the way are cane fields of waving green. In addition, there are now many islands out at sea, and they take the form of huge towering islands – Hinchinbrook National Park is a World Heritage site, and is amazing to look at even from a distance – huge mountains rearing out of the sea, covered with rain forest all over and mangroves around the bottom.
View of Hinchinbrook Island from Cardwell
I must admit to being rather irritated today when we went to the Information Centre at Cardwell to find out if we could hire a little tinny to explore the channels and canals around Hinchinbrook Island – and was informed by the slightly snooty lady on duty that ‘sorry, Hinchinbrook National Park is a very special place and the only way the public (it sounded like she was saying ‘unwashed hordes’ and looking at me like I had just crawled out from under a rock – excuse me!! I had my hair done yesterday – I think I look quite swish!) can get there is on THE TOUR!’ Surprise, surprise, the tour costs $99.00 a person, and they get a commission for booking you onto said tour. I felt like responding with .... ‘ well in Victoria, Wilsons Promontory is a special place too and anyone can go there!’ Grrrr! As I said before, these Queenslanders always seem to have their hand out for your money! (one wonders if this is a little like the same rationale they use for research funding – The Uni or government say we will give you $xx IF you can get $xx from another sources. Here in Queensland it seems the government has said to the Information centres – we will give you half the budget you need and you must get the other half from selling tours – all very fishy – a bit like trying to see a financial planner when their salary comes from selling you a policy that you don’t really need).
Kim and Cas packing
Of course the low today was sending Cass home on a flight very early this morning (up at 4:30 am). We had kinda got used to having her around – someone to laugh at and with, and who spent plenty of time laughing at us!! After she had flown away, it was a fairly quiet pack up and meander down the coast this morning – felt like we had lost an important part of ourselves – life is always bitter sweet it is not? Even as we were missing her we were telling each other to snap out of it and enjoy the last two weeks that we have left – my goodness time flies when you are having fun – we have nearly finished this adventure and the end is coming a bit too fast! But on the other hand .... my bed at home, a routine, nice clothes to wear, my kids and animals, my hair straightener .... my friends ..... it will be nice to have all that again! And we did have a wonderful time in Cairns – on the last night before Cassie left, we went to the Night Market and then out for dinner – to celebrate good uni exam results – Cass did fantastically with her results – so we had a double celebration. We walked on the Esplanade after dinner and came across some free entertainment that involved fire throwing – a group of circus trainees doing their thing – it was wonderful to watch.
A family of Bush Thick-Knees in our camp - scary calls in the night
Anyway, we found the nicest free camp spot tonight – clean and flushing toilets complete with lights, soap and toilet paper and even a garden (not IN the toilet – around it!). Rich has rigged up a shower for me tonight, so really, life couldn’t be better really (well except that we could have TV I suppose!).
The road sign right where we saw the Cassowary
The absolute highlight of the day was FINALLY seeing a real live Cassowary on the side of the road – we have been looking at signs about them for the last week and not spotted a live one, and finally today there he was, drinking water on the side of the road – of course we were going a little fast to stop in time, by the time we had done a U Turn, he had wandered off into the roadside bush – so we don’t have photographic proof that we saw him – so we just took a picture of the warning sign!! We really did see him – he was bigger than I expected – almost ostrich size, a gorgeous shiny black colour with his bright blue head piece really quite striking!
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