There was the predictable lengthy delay while we waited for the ambulances, followed by the inevitable Police inquiries and recording of details but, at least, we were allowed back on our way before the ambulances had cleared the highway, and the regular traffic flow resumed.
It was a rather subdued outfit that made its way into Ingham and refueled, heading straight on to Cardwell for a rendezvous with crab sangas and an opportunity for Hughesy to lose his mobile phone, though of course we didn't realize that at the time, did we?
With a late lunch out of the way and no thought given to mobile phones we did the last leg in to Mission Beach, pulling up at Cassawong Cottages with enough time on our hands to have Madam looking at a walk through the rainforest. Once we’d extricated the baggage from the car we were retracing our tracks as far as the Licuala day-use area, where the 1.3 km Fan Palm walk, with sections of boardwalk along the way, meanders through fan palm forest that’s still showing the impact of Cyclone Yasi, with fallen trees and sawn-off trunks. Having done that, it seemed logical to do a circuit of the shorter (400 m) Children’s Discovery walk that follows ‘cassowary footprints’ to a ‘nest’ just before the car park.
With the walk out of the way we headed off for a look around, venturing as far as Clump Mountain National Park, just south of Bingil Bay, where we could, time permitting, have taken another walk, but it was late afternoon, and a return to base by way of the beach at North Mission seemed the better option.
Another stop at Wongaling Beach to catch the sunset got us back to the cottage around dusk, with Hughesy designated to look after the barbecue when it came to the evening’s catering. I’m not the world’s greatest barbie operator, and the steak packs we’d picked up from Dave Matthews at Angus Butchers probably deserved better treatment, but there were no complaints from the consumers.
After an eventful day, with a need to be on the road reasonably early in the morning there wasn’t too much in the way of post-prandial action before the travelling quartet were pushing up Zs in the rather comfortable sleeping quarters.