Direction South: Mission Beach, Cardwell, and Balgal Beach

After our Tablelands tour, we continued heading south along the east coast. On that Friday (4th November), we chose a camping spot for the night in a small town called Silkwood. The 'camping spot' was simply a field behind a petrol station where you pay $5 per vehicle, but there were also warm showers. It was definitely worth it for us. Before getting ready for the night, we made a detour to Mission Beach. It's a well-known beach and we wanted to have a look around. However, Andi didn't want to walk too far, so we couldn't do any of the walks suggested at the visitor centre. Instead, we drove to a lookout that was accessible by car. It was really nice and on the way there, we stopped at one of those fruit stalls and bought a pawpaw for $1 (Private Fruit Tasting had begun!). Only after the purchase did we realize that it was a papaya, as it is called in our country :D

As the evening approached, we did some shopping in Mission Beach, drove back to Silkwood, set up our camp for the night, and then had a delicious dinner: homemade herb flatbread with tomato dip, cheese, ham, salami, and a green salad with feta. Soooo good. We tried the papaya for dessert and found it both delicious and very strange at the same time :D We had the rest of the papaya for breakfast, so we had our first taste of a local tropical fruit.

The next day, we enjoyed a shower and then continued driving south. We arrived at a small town called Cardwell, where there is a forest drive with various stops to visit. The first stop was not great because there was not enough water in the natural spa pools in a stream. The second stop was slightly better, although not perfect: a nice walk through a forest to the Attie Falls, which were only a trickle. So we moved on to the last spot: the Cardwell Lookout. We drove up there (to spare Andi's feet) and had a nice view of the town and the coast.

After the forest drive, we went to the Five Mile Swimming Hole and had lunch at a picnic table. We considered going into the water, but the water level was quite low and the water quality didn't look fresh and inviting. And we had already had enough swimming in the past few days, so we continued on our way.

Next, we came to a lookout on the highway where we could see beautiful Hitchinbrook Island and the small islands in the river estuary. The island is separated from the mainland by a narrow sea passage and is one of the largest national park islands in Australia. From the lookout, we had a great view of the island's high mountains and the surrounding waterways. It looked so unreal and majestic from up there.

After the lookout, we continued driving south and decided where we wanted to spend the night. We chose a rest area at Balgal Beach, which is right on the beach. We managed to get one of the last free spots there. Andi and I both felt like having a lazy day, and we liked the place by the beach with the small park and the green grass, so we ended up staying there for 2 nights. It was really nice. We played a lot of card games, tried out new ones, and dug out old ones like Watten. We lay in the grass and read or sorted out pictures. In the evenings, we had noodles because we didn't have many groceries left and the nearest supermarket was 30km away. But the food was tasty and we had some wine too^^

This morning, we watched the sunrise at Balgal Beach and got bitten by mosquitoes while doing so. The sunrise was beautiful, but being bitten by mosquitoes was not so great. In general, there were a lot of mosquitoes there. One funny thing was that on Saturday, there was a market in Balgal Beach (since it is a small town) and this market was right in the small park between our rest area and the beach. So one of the stalls was only about 4 meters away from our car or so :D The market itself wasn't anything special, it was more like a flea market with a jumble of items at the stalls. There were probably only 6 stalls in total. But it had a pleasant, village-like atmosphere, and quite a few people came to have a look around, especially many children. We sat in the middle of it at a picnic table and immersed ourselves in the atmosphere. People were lucky that it didn't rain because it had poured heavily the night before and there was also a storm forecasted for the next day and night. But the weather in the region is usually unpredictable, so it was sunny during the day and it didn't rain at night.

Today, we said goodbye to Balgal Beach and drove another hour south to Townsville. We sat in the library and I caught up on my blog posts. Let's see what the next few days will bring, there's no real plan yet. But what's nice is that we've found a party for New Year's Eve and just need to buy the tickets. They cost $139 per person, but it's a closed venue with a special platform right at the harbor where we can watch the fireworks. We have access to several bars, and because the venue is Luna Park, we can also ride all the attractions throughout the night :D We're looking forward to it :) For Christmas, there's now the prospect of celebrating with the family of one of Andi's former exchange students. If it works out, it will be really nice and we'll feel 'taken care of'.

So, that's it for now. I can't believe I'm actually up to date with the blog posts :D Let's see if I can keep it this way, otherwise it's always a bit stressful to write everything afterwards ;)