Yesterday we showed a couple from WA through the RV and the outside before the mosquito's drove us all inside . I did my best salesman stuff and gave him a brochure & website , which he duly checked out last night . He then came over this morning and watched us get hitched up , whilst talking about the website and our photos on it .
We emptied the tanks and headed off at 9:20am .
Now Townsville is a funny place - it messes with your head - when you think you have the directions sorted ( north, south , east & west ) it throws you a curve ball - Magnetic Island is actually north of Townsville , but when you look at it , you would think it is east ; when you leave Townsville to head further up the coast you go west before that changes to northwest and you don't really go north till near Ingham ; the sun appears to set in the northwest ??? - apparently this is what happened to Captain Cook as well - not the magnetic fields that he thought had played with his compass .
We drove through a lot of flat coastal plains today , with the mountains on our left all the way up . There was a lot of State Forests until we got closer to Ingham , when the sugarcane and pineapples took over - more cane than pineapples . We stopped at Ingham at TYTO Wetlands & Information Centre ( it is named after the Eastern Grass Owl - Tyto Capensis ) . There is 120 hectares of wetlands that you can wander through , there are hides to observe the birds etc , guided walks or suit yourself itineraries , restaurants , a library & cultural centre . There is a raised walkway that takes you over the wetlands from the info centre to the restaurant and library etc . It is about 4m above the ponds , which have a good coverage of water lilies , and just as well we were up there , because there was a black snake coiled in & out of the lily pads - it wasn't moving far as it had a very full belly - this snake would have been 5 to 6 feet long at least - see for yourself . The large lily pads are about 2 feet across.
We watched some lily pad birds with long toed feet , hop around the pads - maybe there is now one less than there was yesterday ????
There were also displays of various machinery used in the production of sugar , from ploughs to train carriages to the crushing of the cane . The crushers two bottom drums are about a metre diameter , and and & a half metres long - you can imagine how much that would weigh !!
There was a garden in someones house near where we parked that had some amazing flowers in it.
We left there and headed north to Cardwell . You can see some mountains out to the right of our drive , after leaving Ingham , these mountains started to get closer . The road started to climb , and took us up the only hill that we would find today , nearer the top , there was a turnoff to a lookout to Hinchinbrook Island - it was a bit steep and crossed over the top of the Bruce Hwy , so we decided not to stop just in case there was nowhere to turn the RV around .
The penny then dropped - the mountain range we were looking at was actually Hinchinbrook Island . It is very close to the coast and is the biggest Island National Park . We had mountains on each side of us , and it is spectacular country . The highest peak on Hinchinbrook is over 1100m asl - twice as high as Moss Vale is . It's head was in the clouds for the most part of today .
We could still see damage to the trees from when Cyclone Yasi went through several years ago . Pine plantations again seemed to bear the brunt of it . Apparently in Cardwell , there were some sheds and houses that disappeared from the face of the earth with no trace found still !!!
We found our park for the next two nights and checked in . There was one long site left - in between some Victorians - they will be here for the next 3 months before heading home again - another couple that we saw in Townsville , will be here for 5 months - they leave their rather large fishing boat here in storage for the other 7 months !! They took 5 days to drive from home in Victoria to Townsville - talk about white line fever !!
We had lunch & went for a drive around Port Hinchinbrook - a boat ramp & rescue service , with a subdivision around it , with your rather large house and your own private jetty to tie your extra large game fishing boat up to . We then headed back to the lookout over Hinchinbrook Island ( the southern end ) it was only about 30 kms down the road ( we thought about 15klms - OOPS ) , but it was worth it - and turns out it was only just off the hwy and had plenty of room for large vehicles - even better !!
we could have looked earlier !!
Whilst there , we spotted some small puffy looking flowers on a bit of a vine , with very thin short leaves - as I bent down , my foot touched some of the leaves and they retracted to the stem - this plant had a inbuilt self preservation method !! This is what it looks like with leaves out , then with leaves folded .
We took some photos of the RV earlier , heres one . That's Hinchinbrook Island in the background , and we are staying about 100m away from the beach .
Back to the RV for some salsa & a beer , before going for a walk down the beach . As we got back the sun started to put on a little show for us .
All those mountains are Hinchinbrook Island .
Thats today done & dusted . Her is a map link :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.kIy3CRvnEiOU&usp=sharing
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