Yasi country

From Port Douglas it was back to Cairns for a few nights. At last we met up with Rob, a friend of a very good friend of ours in Switzerland. He is a fisherman with his own trawler and the first time we tried to catch up with him he was at sea, then he was in Brisbane but finally, we saw him. Ken, he sends his best wishes to you and Liz. (He has excellent fish and seafood and we made the most of it. He introduced us to a new fish, mahi-mahi. Yum!)

The Atherton Tableland is always a draw for us and we went to Innisfail up and over via Millaa Millaa, making a little detour back to the Mungalli Creek Dairy, which makes the best ever yoghourt. We stocked the fridge and we're getting through it already! This was our third route from the Tableland down to the coast and it was as hair-raising as the others. Isobel's turn to drive but she is a happier driver than a passenger on these roads!

We had an interesting stopover for one night near Innisfail at a place called Paronella Park, which has almost a fairytale history. A Spaniard by the name of Jose Paronella decided he wanted to build castles, in Australia. He came out and made a substantial amount of money by buying cane farms, improving and reselling them. He then went back to Spain to marry the woman he had left there but since he had not communicated with her for eight years, she had married someone else! To save face he married her sister and brought her out to Australia. With his money he built his castles, virtually with his own hands. He must have been quite a romantic, as he included ballrooms, a "lover's lane" a picnic area by a pool which formed at the base of the Mena Creek Falls and also tennis courts (which he made with crushed termite mounds as clay), bowling green, etc. The place eventually fell into disrepair after his death but to cut a long story short it has been bought and is being recreated as it was, and it makes an interesting tourist attraction, well worth a visit.

The castle at night .......

........ and during the day

The beautiful avenue of Kauri Pine trees, which grow very tall and straight

The falls at night .........

........... and during the day

From Innisfail southwards we really began to see the devastation wrought by cyclone Yasi which hit the coast on 3rd February. It was such a huge cyclone the damage to forests was horrendous and there are still properties with no roofs. At Mission Beach, Tully and Cardwell in particular, there are houses under reconstruction, but there are also many just boarded up and abandoned. The locals all have their stories to tell, some inspirational, some just heart-rending. The stoicism of these people is remarkable. The caravan park at South Mission Beach is right at the beach and as we spent the night there it was hard to imagine that night in February when the wrath of nature was let loose. They had a couple of photo albums to help the imagination along. Impressive. One of the shops we went into in Cardwell also had photos on display and it was amazing to see the Bruce Highway, which follows the coast at that point, just demolished. One wonders where the next season's cyclones will come in and hope that the same places don't cop it again. That whole coastline is just so vulnerable.

So here we are in Townsville. We will be incommunicado for a few days as we leave the Winnebago for service and more repairs -- unfortunately several are the same ones -- and while this is happening we will be on Magnetic Island. It is almost 20 years since we were there and we do not expect to recognise too much of it. However, we are assured the koalas are still there -- they live in the wild on Maggi and it is so exciting to see them. It seems there's a mum and baby very visible at the moment. We will have three nights there and when we come back it will be to take the van to Iveco for a new windscreen! We have a crack which just appeared and a large chip which we saw happen when a road train passed in the opposite direction. The driver was driving perfectly correctly but the road had just been resurfaced and there was a lot of loose gravel which his enormous beast threw up at us. Bang! At least it happened before we fixed the crack! The van will also have an oil change, which should see us back to W.A.

Townsville also has provided us with the doctor that Warwick needed -- his turn! Unfortunately it looks as thought the old enemy, Giardia, has struck again. He doesn't seem to be able to get through this part of the world without catching it, and since it was par for the course when we lived in Indonesia, he recognises the symptoms by now. A course of Flagyl should shift it and it is an extra incentive to have a "dry September" as we had decided we would do (alcohol is a strict no-no when one is taking Flagyl). He had a couple of very uncomfortable days but is feeling rather better apart from the constant hunt for toilets!