Cassowary Coast - October 2020
We may have descended from the tablelands to the coast, but it wasn’t a comedown. We merely left one beautiful spot and entered another, different but also very beautiful. The Palmerston Highway took us to Innisfail, where we had a coffee with an old mate before continuing south to Mission Beach. The Cassowary Coast is so named after the two metre tall flightless bird of this area. It was a lovely drive to Mission Beach through cane fields and banana groves, marred only by the car radio getting us up to date on the debacle of the U.S. presidential debate. So grateful to be a Queenslander.
Mission Beach was lovely. It has that peaceful, sleepy feel not yet ruined by too much tourism.
After a very restful night we moved on to Cardwell, not far down the road, but plenty to see along the way. We made the short detour into Tully, home of the golden gumboot. Tully has the highest annual rainfall of any populated place in Australia, receiving an average of 4,490 ml (over 60 inches) per year. The average number of days rain falls each year is 150.
Fortunately we passed through in the driest month of the year, so didn’t need our umbrella or gumboots. The gumboot is 7.9 metres tall, which is the amount of rain recorded in Tully in 1950. The green tree frog represents the frogs that are familiar to the area., being the largest tree frogs on earth. They average 110 mm long. |
Cardwell has changed quite a bit since I was here over 40 years ago. Back then, Cardwell and Bowen we’re the only places along the Bruce Highway that you spotted the sea. It is still a sleepy little seaside town, but it has grown and has been spruced up since Cyclone Yasi blew away a lot of the old places.
Next stop, Townsville for a few days before returning to Proserpine. It feels so long ago that we started off to Ravenswood. We have loved every moment of our varied journey through the dusty west, the lush green tablelands, and sleepy, coastal towns. As they say, “Queensland, beautiful one day, perfect the next.”