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Published: December 11th 2012
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Mission Beach
A week of fun, excitement and celebration. Mission Beach
Nov 2012
Our trip down to Mission Beach from Flying Fish Point was uneventful and filled with anticipation. As we had traversed this stretch a few time to explore the beaches and bays, our thoughts were mostly with Matt and Penny who we would be picking up from Cairns airport in a couple of days time.
Mission Beach is an unspoilt spot on the coast where nature takes centre stage. With its long unspoilt beaches, deserted islands and white-water rivers fringed by the rainforest this was going to be a great week. Mission Beach has 14 kilometres of sandy beaches, so it was easy to find a quiet place to relax and swim in the Coral Sea which was really warm here. Jackie loved walking along the
beach and quickly acquired a new hunting skill for her breed, crab catching. Nose down, she would just run and run and her nose would go down every crab hole she found. If there was a sound or ‘smell’ (I guess) she would start digging pausing every now and then until she found the crab, and then the game was on with her chasing it along the beach until
Mission Beach
A fantastic long white sand beach. she would just ‘crunch’ it. Yes, occasionally the crab would latch on!
Lush rainforest touches the shores of Mission Beach, hiding the elusive southern cassowary. We looked for these majestic creatures everywhere we went but never saw one! There are four villages that are collectively known as Mission Beach: South Mission Beach, Wongaling Beach, North Mission Beach and Bingil Bay. We stayed at North Mission Beach in the council run park right on the beach, brilliant.
Matt & Pen arrived and were staying at Castaways Resort, not 500 mtrs down the beach from us. They had just announced their engagement and we were so excited to see them both, the couple of bottles of MUMM we drank on their arrival, set up what was to be a fantastic week. The beach and the small group of shops that make up Mission Beach were the centre of our week, but we did venture off to do a few ‘touristy’ things.
As the area is so close to the Great Barrier Reef, we spent one day on a 60 ft yacht charter snorkelling the reef. Just beautiful, we saw lots of colourful reef fish amongst the soft and hard
They have arrived !
Do I look happy to see Matt & Pen? corals, unfortunately there were no turtles for Pen to swim with, but the colour of some of the corals made up for this, somewhat! A great day all round.
On another day we went out to Paronella Park an amazing dream (folly?) of one man. José Paronella arrived in Australia from Catalonia in Spain, in 1913. For the next 11 years he worked hard, cutting sugar cane initially, then purchasing, improving, and reselling cane farms. In 1924 he returned to Spain and married Margarita in 1925. The trip back to Australia was their honeymoon.
José purchased 13 acres of virgin rainforest along Mena Creek in 1929 and started to build his dream reception centre and gardens. The earliest structure, the Grand Staircase, was built to facilitate the carrying of the river sand to make the concrete. First they built a house to live in, then they started on the Castle itself. In 1935, the Park was officially opened to the public. The Theatre showed movies every Saturday night. In addition, with the canvas chairs removed, the Hall was a favourite venue for dances and parties.
The Park was sold out of the family in 1977after a number
Start as you intend to finish..
...and a bucket of prawns is as good as it gets for Pen. of setbacks including the death of José and a disastrous flood, and sadly, in 1979, a fire swept through the Castle. For a time, the Park was closed to the public. Cyclone Winifred in 1986, a flood in January 1994, Cyclone Larry in March 2006, and Cyclone Yasi in January 2011 were all further setbacks and challenges for Paronella Park.
Today under new ownership, (1993), Paronella Park has undergone a massive rebuilding and restoration program reliving the dream of José. What an incredible, extraordinary place this is and an attraction not to be missed when in the area.
All too soon our week with Matt & Pen was over and we were once again headed up the road to Cairns to see them off, but what a magical exciting week we had with them and we relish the memories of celebrating their engagement with them during this time, oh how we miss them both!
But back to Mission Beach, a great relaxing holiday destination on a great beach, I just wonder how busy it could get in peak holiday times? After a day of packing up and a few last long walks, with Jackie whilst she went
Matt & Pen
At the pool at Castaways Resort, Mission Beach. crabbing, we were ready for our next leg down towards Townsville.
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faye gronow
non-member comment
sounds like a place we need to put on our travel list. So happy for you both you were able to celebrate with Penny and Matt. especially so soon after the announcement. OMG we are all going to be the in-laws, and I must say Penny is a luucky girl.!!!!!! Would loved to have seen Jacki and her crab searching!!!