We Can See Clearly Now (the rain has gone)

We didn’t know where to head to from Yungaburra as we still had a couple of weeks before meeting Kyran, Vanessa and the children in Cairns. At the last minute I put an advertisement on the Facebook Notice Board for the town of Innisfail offering our services for house and/or pet sitting. Being close to school holidays I didn’t expect a response but actually got several replies. The first off the rank was a couple who were hoping to head off on holiday but couldn’t find anyone to look after their two dogs. We said we’d be happy to do it. They offered us free camping with the use of their laundry and bathroom in exchange for feeding Rocky and Zarli, a blue and red heeler respectively.

We met Nicole and Phil at their business- Picnics Country Crafts in Innisfail. Nicole took us up to the property in South Johnson to meet the dogs and set up camp. We just keep landing on our feet! Their place was a stunning 30 acres of green fields surrounded by sugar cane and banana plantations with beautiful mountains in the distance. And just 15 minutes out of Innisfail.

We stayed ten nights here. It was so lovely and peaceful, and the dogs were great – friendly and easy to look after. The only problem was it rained every day! Thankfully we didn’t experience floods which they did in NSW and parts of southern Queensland. It was even raining in Gove! The unseasonal weather affected the Northern Territory and right down the east coast.

I admit we used the wet days to catch up on our reading, and were quite lazy. However, we did go out to explore the local area, having to watch out for cane trains along the way. Like Babinda, and all this area in fact, we had to share bridges and roads with them, and kept a close eye out for trains crossing the road in front of us. We loved driving past the sugar cane and banana plantations especially when work was happening, for example when the cane was being cut. The sugar mill was just down the road in South Johnson.

We made use of the book exchange at the local post office and discovered a lovely little cafe, Flow to Grow, which we frequented a few times to break up the rainy days.

At the end of our ten nights’ stay, Nicole and Phil took us out to dinner at a great Chinese Restaurant (Gumloon) in Innisfail. The food was delicious and the conversation flowed well. We had a lovely evening and were very appreciative of both the dinner and our stay at their gorgeous property.

Paronella Park

Friends told us not to miss Paronella Park and, since it was just 8kms from our camp, we decided that would be our next stop. The forecast promised drier weather to come. Our ticket included free camping although there was only an unpowered site left. That didn’t worry us. We booked in for the night tour but it was absolutely pouring down with rain and we had to cancel.

We awoke to lovely sunshine the next morning so we were able to do the morning tour which was good. We actually knew nothing about the Park and found it all very interesting. The park itself was beautiful with the castle ruins, waterfall, lots of walking trails and little bridges over streams. There was plenty wildlife too – kangaroos, wild birds, eels in the water plus barramundi and turtles that hung around us wanting to be fed.

Mission Beach and their weekend markets was on our to do list and we did head down there from South Johnson to catch up with a friend, Glossy (who later had us over to her house for a wonderful dinner). It was so wet that we didn’t stay long but agreed we would go back. And we did, after Paronella Park, on a beautiful, sunny day and loved it, particularly South Mission Beach where we didn’t know whether to look at the beach or the lovely houses opposite. We camped for a night at Mission Beach in the council caravan park which was right on the beach!