Innisfail

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We stayed a little longer at Lucinda than anticipated as we received a phone call early on the morning of 10th June from Trevor’s brother to say his Mum had passed away so we booked the train and went down to Brisbane for the funeral and then back up to Lucinda for a couple more days. Trevor went crabbing with our neighbour and they got another 5 crabs as well as seeing a very large crocodile come towards them who was a little longer than their tinnie so they drove the boat away very quickly to live another day. This is a photo of our neighbours Big Al and Liz.

We played a couple of games of golf at a small town called Mackdale and most of its trees were blown over by Cyclone Yasi. It is only a 9 hole course and very rough since the cyclone, but we had a good time as none of us had played for quite a while. Trevor and Al lost a few balls each and we couldn’t understand why as there was nowhere on the course that the balls could have gone, but we couldn’t find them anywhere. But alas coming down the next fairway we saw this big black crow flying off with a ball in its mouth so he got away with 5 balls from the guys and a couple more from another couple who were playing there also. They probably had a stall set up down the road where they were selling 2nd hand golf balls or maybe thought they were eggs and are still waiting for them to hatch.

This is our site at Lucinda which was very nice.

After Lucinda we travelled to Tully Heads where Yasi did most of its damage as along the esplanade almost every house was either completely blown or washed away or so badly damaged there were only a few people able to move back into their house. We visited a couple who lived there and he showed us through his house which didn’t look too bad from the outside, but when we looked inside and he explained to us exactly what had happened it was devastating. Apart from the wind blowing down their back patio the water surge just rushed through their ground floor windows and doors and pushed their fridge, freezer and other items out through their garage door and everything ended up across the road in the neighbours yard. The garage door just ripped in half with the weight of the water, just incredible. Everyone was told to evacuate, but apparently there was one guy across the road who didn’t and he almost lost his life after a terrifying 4 hours of hanging on for grim life. The wind was so strong that all the leaves were blown off the trees up to at least 40k inland. They are starting to grow back and look rather nice, but it must have looked so bare for a few months. There is still so much to do here and other places and it will take a few years for everywhere to get back to normal. We saw many garage doors that had just been ripped apart either from the wind or the water surge. The first night we arrived we noticed a lot of the caravanners met around a fire for a drink so we ventured over there to meet everyone. As soon as we turned up we were told that the men sat on one side and the women on the other and of course we didn’t like this so we sat together. After about 10 minutes we had this couple come over to talk to us and it happened to be a couple we met in Dover, Tasmania when we were down there a few years ago. It really is a small world isn’t it.

We went for a drive up to see the Tully Gorge and were just in time to spot a group of rafters coming down the gorge. Looks like they are having a great time and every boat except one tipped over going over this rapid, but there was a bit of help from the tour guide we think.

The Tully Sugar Mill had just started up and we were hoping to take a tour while we were there, but the tours were not beginning until the following week as it takes a week to fire everything up. We were disappointed as we heard it was a great tour but hopefully we may get to do it on our way back to Brisbane. We had bad weather in Tully Heads as it rained most of the time and it was also windy so we didn’t get to do any fishing.

On our way to Innisfail we stopped at a place called Paronella Park which is a property built by


We stayed overnight and then drove onto Flying Fish Point 7k out of Innisfail near the beach. This was a lovely van park and we were able to do plenty of bike riding around the area. The proprietors put on a Roast Pork night for $10 / head and it was delicious with heaps of crackling too. This is supposed to be the Cassowary Coast with plenty of signs to advise you to look out for cassowaries, but we hadn’t seen one for ages until we drove to Etty Bay just south of Innisfail. This one was just standing in the middle of the road as if he was waiting for us to come along and take a photo of it because as soon as I took the photo it just strolled back onto the side of the road to let us pass.

Josephine Falls just inland from Innisfail.

Cane cutting is happening everywhere up this way at this time of year, but unfortunately it isn’t a good year because of all the rain and Cyclone Yasi.

Babinda Boulders where quite a few people have lost their lives in the past as the water is fast running during the wet season.

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