Day 33: On the road heading south from Cairns‏

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Today involved quite a bit of driving but we did take a couple of detours on our way. First stop was the Granite Gorge, situated about 20 minutes outside the small town Mareeba. Here wallaby's will feed from your hand, we saw a couple of young ones and a tiny one still in the pouch! Then we were back on the road to Yungaburra in the hope of seeing a Platypus (no such luck!). Our next stops were a beautiful swimming lake (Lake Eacham) and Millaa Millaa falls. We arrived at our final destination, Mission Beach in time for dinner and an early night.

Bailey's bit:

For the first time on this trip we woke up and had no idea about where to head next. A guy in the hostel gave some good recommendations and so we hit the road to explore. Granite gorge was good, but a bit in the middle of nowhere! We started on a bush walk across large boulders and sand alongside the gorge, but after 15 minutes or so Cat turned back as it started to get dangerous. I continued and as I hopped across the boulders I suddenly heard a boy shouting, when I got to him he was stuck in the rocks with a very deep cut on his leg, possibly broken, infact I'd say he was pretty close to chewing his leg off... with his worried parents tending to him as best they could I had to run back to the reception lodge in the midday heat to raise the alarm! I offered to run back with the first aid kit and water (great opportunity to rack up my daily mileage!) while the owner called an ambulance and drove the 4WD down the nearest track. All ended well with the boy being taken by the ambulance to get stitches for his wound (I may have exaggerated a little on the chewing the leg off bit!). Saving lives, running miles...

Daily mileage: 5 A run north up the beach front until I ran out of path and back to the lagoon for a refreshing dip! Not sure about the rescue mission distances so ill leave them out!

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Comments

[Julie Pollard]

What, no picture of the boy chewing his leg off!